Endeavor: When Darkness Falls
by Nigel Yearning
Summary: The OC wrote a story, a story that he doesn't remember writing, is coming to life. In order to make sense of the situation, he and the smurfs must find the missing pages or be engulfed by the Dark Presence. OC POV. Inspired by the Remedy game "Alan Wake."
1. Ch 1: In The Dead Of Night

**Disclaimer: I do not own any characters that were created by someone else**

**Claimer: Go to my profile to view my characters**

I opened my eyes and awoken in the pitch blackness, every muscle in my body screams in pain. I try to move, but my joints feel more stiffer than a corpse. The air smells stale and rotten, air this stagnant must have remain stale a long time. I found myself lying on the floor, the wood feels cold to the touch. How did I get here, I wondered, how long had I been here?

My name is Chernov Reznov, I stand at least 10 cm tall and way 28 grams. My skin is green as the grass and my smurf hat, jacket, and pants are M81 woodland camouflage. I reside in the Smurf Village, the smurfs everyone know in love. I'm part of a succeeding species of smurfs known as the Green Smurfs, who are more human than smurf. Our technology is more advanced than the smurfs, and we managed to manufacture high tech equipment like computers and mp3 players. Our bodies are more cylinder shape than pear and our legs were straight then slightly bent, we were more human than smurf. My height is unqiue, since I'm taller than the blue and green smurfs.

I scrambled up to my feet, my legs gave in to my weight and my face met the floor hard. I groaned in pain, it felt worse than getting shot. I managed to find a table and I used it to support myself, I managed to stand up finally and I scrambled for a light switch. It was a mad panic, I was disoriented, hopeless, and lost. But I didn't care at this point, I just wanted to see. My hand ran across the wall and it ran into a small switched, nothing.

When the lights didn't come on, I pound my fist onto a counter. When I did so, something fell onto the floor and rolled towards my feet. I picked it up and realized it was a flashlight, so I turned it on. Its light lit the room up quite nicely, and it took me awhile to realize that I was at home. Normally the computers up against the wall were on, but they weren't activated. The power must be turned off, I must turn it back on.

I walked over to my furnace and opened the hatch, it was cold to the touch. I grabbed nearby firewood and throw it into the chamber before I lit it with a butane lighter. It took awhile for the fire to get started, right now I must get the generator to work. I opened the small trapdoor leading to the basement and climbed down the latter, my flashlight managed to reveal the generator, energy storage, and the plumbing that feeds water to the village in the small room.

They were all turned off, everything was deactivated. I approached the generator and noticed the gas tank was dry, it was usually powered with Methane gas collected from the septic tank. For some reason, the generator call it quits. However, the alternative is the boiler which uses steam to turn a turbine. The boiler was already being heated by the furnace up above, so I opened a valve which releases steam into a turbine. The sudden pressure forced the turbine to rapidly spin and the power suddenly came back on, I can tell as I could hear the computers coming back to life upstairs.

I head back upstairs and was greeted by the glow of an LED light on the ceiling, lighting the entire room. It felt comforting to be under its glow, but I realize there was work that must be done. I noticed the windows were sealed by steel plates on the outside, they can be open and closed by an electronic circuit. I pressed a switch on the wall and the steel panels slid open, revealing the darkness of the night outside amidst the window's security bars.

I opened the glass windows ajar, getting fresh air from the outside to fill and circulate the room. My head begins to feel clear, and my thoughts became well organized again.

I glanced at my desk and saw a typewriter, one of those old fashion style typewriters that probably date back to 1940. I recall having it for about a long time, I used it to write several books in the past. Normally there's a stack of blank paper that sits next to the typewriter, but there's none. The chair that I sit at the desk with was turned over and was sitting in front of the bedroom door, I set down the flashlight and grabbed the chair, setting it upright again and scoot it underneath the desk.

The pain in my head start up again, it feels like I was injured. When I approach and gaze at myself in the mirror, I realized that I am indeed injured. There was a gash, right over my ear on my temple. The wound appears fresh, maybe that must have woke me up. My home suddenly felt like a prison, and I grabbed the flashlight off the table and scrambled to the front door. I opened it and ran outside before collapsing into the grass, panting loudly. I looked up and saw the stars above my head, the moon was full as clouds were trying to overtake its glow.

I pound my fist onto the ground and let out a scream, I was so frustrated and disoriented that I couldn't distinguish reality from my imagination. Amidst my torment, I began to recall memories before my blackout. It had something to do with Rachael, my overweight green smurf girlfriend. Our kids, Cherskey and Nelly played a role but I couldn't remember what happened. Did we get into an argument? Or something more?

It then hit me, the green smurfs back at the Green Smurf Colony came by and pulled a prank on everyone. I remember them coming in squads, armed with paintball guns. They were terrorizing the smurfs, their devious prank on Unhappiness Day made sure that the smurfs, as the holiday assured, were suffering as they should. After 30 minutes of paint-balling everything, they head back east leaving an entire village covered in green paint. Papa Smurf's house took the worse, every corner of his house was covered in green paint as the other homes were simply tagged with polka-dots.

I have never been so mad in my entire life, sure I enjoyed it but it got to far. Since I'm suppose to be the green smurf's leader, I took that role for the moment. I scared them off with my Standard Infantry Rifle, simple rifle that you can change the barrel for a rifle, shotgun, or sniper mod. I think I was angry since I was writing a book, after the incident I stormed into my house and locked the door behind me. Didn't let anyone in, not even my own family.

I'm now paying the price, but I don't know how long I've been in there. I've lost track of time, all I could do now is vent my unusual behavior out into the cold dark night. As I sat there on my knees, I heard someone approach. I waited till the last moment before I turned and pulled out a knife, only to realize it was Papa Smurf standing before me. His eyes were surprised as he saw mine were filled in terror, he held the candle-operated lantern over his head as his fellow smurfs come walking from behind. Since everyone was still in their pajamas, I must have woken them up from bed.

"Chernov?" asked Papa Smurf.

"Holy sh#t," I cursed, "Oh my god, its you!"

"What happened?" asked Papa Smurf, "We heard you screaming in agony, its been a week since we last seen you."

"A week?" I asked in utter shock.

I'm missing a week? The utter surprise made me put away the knife and scramble back onto my feet, "I don't know what happened," I told him, "I couldn't remember anything, all I remember is the frustration from the arrogance of my fellow half-siblings. Anything after that is completely blank to me. Where's Rachael? Where is she!"

The village leader realize I was paranoid and took a step back, but Rachael intervened by rushing to me and hugged me tightly. "I'm here," she said, making me feel calm. She was already dressed, maybe she slept in her everyday clothes tonight, "Are you okay Chernov?"

"No," I told her as we let go, my mind now clear, "I couldn't remember anything, I don't know whats going on."

"You must be having a serious case of paranoia," noted Brainy, "Probably caused by the negative emotion from the smurfing of the green smurfs last week."

"I don't care about that right now Brainy," I spat, "Right now, I want to know what happened when I was gone."

"Not much in particular," said Papa Smurf, "We tried to call you from your house, but you didn't answer. We can't even break down the door, but when the water lines go dry and your 50 cm tall chimney stopped spewing out smoke we all knew that something was wrong."

"Its still wrong Paps." I bluntly say.

"What happened to your head?" asked Rachael as she examined the gash in the side of my skull.

"I probably hit it accidentally," I replied, "I woke up on the floor, next to an overturned chair at my desk."

"Can we do anything for you right now Chernov?" asked Papa Smurf.

"Not much you can do," I answered, "Probably perhaps-"

A sudden flash of light cuts me off, the flash left me seeing green dots in my vision. "What was that?" asked a smurf in the crowd, "What's that over there?"

**TO BE CONTINUED...**


	2. Ch 2: The Taken

**Disclaimer: I do not own any characters that were created by someone else**

**Claimer: Go to my profile to view my characters**

The smurf pointed over to the distance, towards the vast ocean of water just a couple of meters from my house. There, a couple of white sheets of paper glowing with bright light came fluttering down from the heavens and landed gently onto the ground. I walked up to the papers and picked it up, "Its pages to a manuscript," I said, "Its entitled 'Endeavor', a name I was planning to use for my next book but never got around to."

"Who's the author?" asked Brainy.

"It says here that I'm the author," I said, "But I don't remember writing this."

I handed the cover to Papa Smurf for him to read as I read the second page aloud:

_It was the pitch of night and the smurfs awoke to the cries of the Wunderwaffe, moments later a couple of pages appeared in a flash of light and fluttered to the ground. Chernov was entitled the author, though he has no memory of writing it. Moments after he read the second page, an earthquake shakes the Smurf Village followed by a loud roar of a monster, waking Scaredy Smurf from his sleep. The pantophobic smurf was immediately terrified by the sudden shaking and monstrous roar. When the shaking stopped, his eyes cannot decipher the horror standing over him. He can only scream, as the darkness engulfs him._

"Whoa," said Papa Smurf as I handed him the second page for him to read, "This is vague, are you sure you can't remember writing this Chernov?"

"No," I said, "But this seems ominous, its bad omen waiting to happen."

"This is not smurfy," said Papa Smurf, "This is not smurfy at all."

The earth began to shake violently, knocking several smurfs onto their rears. Cherskey and Nelly ran out of nowhere and rushed to Rachael for cover, suddenly a loud monstrous roar rang out across the forest, scaring the nearby birds out of their slumber and send them flying off into the night in sheer panic. Just as the shaking dies down, we heard a smurf scream in horror from one of the mushroom houses in the village. Everysmurf immediately recognized the voice belonging to Scaredy Smurf.

"Scaredy!" cried Smurfette.

We all ran into the heart of the village and find Scaredy Smurf's house, the outside looked horribly trashed with the door kicked in. Pools of black liquid were everywhere, shimmering some sort of steam that cuts through the air like a heatwave. One of the smurfs tried to touch it, but was immediately burned within direct contact. Papa Smurf and me along with several other smurfs ran into Scaredy's house to find it deserted, it was completely trashed and the smurf himself was missing. His own blood stained his bed and the nearby broken window, it was too much for anysmurf to bare.

"He's gone," said Papa Smurf, "Where did he go?"

Nearby was a glowing page, sitting on Scaredy's desk. When Papa Smurf picked it up, it stopped glowing, so he used the light from his lantern to read the page aloud.

_He was not the smurf he once was, he was just the skin of the former. His eyes, were completely black with bright red orbs in the center. A cloud of darkness and light bending mirages surrounds him, protecting him, from all harm. His voice sounded very demonic, the sound of his voice can send any creature running for the hills. There was nothing left of him, no soul, no heart, no emotion, just pure evil._

It was frightening to the village leader as he handed the page to me, "What on earth is happening?" he asked.

As we head outside, we stopped to wonder what happened to Scaredy and what the page means. "This doesn't make any sense," said Smurfette, "Scaredy just disappeared, as if by magic."

Suddenly, we looked up and saw Scaredy up on the roof. His facial expressions look menacingly, a translucent cloud of darkness covers his entire body as his eyes glow bright red. "The night is cold!" he screams as he wields an axe, his voice sounding partially demonic, "To terrifying that makes me wanna smurf in bed! I can't stand this fear! I wanna hide! But no matter where I smurf, it follows me, from, behind!"

Scaredy turned around and jumped down behind his house, we all rushed to the back and found him long gone. All the smurfs scream in sheer panic, so Papa Smurf stood on a barrel in front of everysmurf and tried his best to calm them down. "Don't be afraid my smurfs," he reassures, "Everything is under control!"

A hatchet came flying by and grazed the village leader's beard before plunging itself into the wall, the sight of the hatched made Papa Smurf fell off the bucket but I was quick to catch him.

"You can learn about nature and yourself!" we heard a distant demonic voice say nearby as I sat Papa Smurf down.

All the smurfs turned and to the edge of the Smurf Village saw 3 green smurfs welding axes, picks, and wrenches. They were all engulfed by the same cloud as Scaredy, and they all appear to be a threat. I pulled out my handgun and pointed it at them, "Stand back or I'll shoot!" I warned.

They didn't respond, they just keep on walking towards us. I fired a round into the air and the green smurfs still didn't respond, not even flinched. Then I fired a bullet into one of the green smurf's torsos, he took the round like it was nothing and kept on walking towards us. After a few more rounds pelting the green's smurf's chest and head, he was still walking and uninjured. "

"Get back!" I ordered as I took a step back, "Oh f#ck this, retreat!"

I ran towards my house as everyone follows me from behind, they were all screaming in sheer terror as more green smurfs came following from behind. "You cannot withstand the horror!" cried Scaredy nearby as he jumps over from mushroom house to mushroom house, "It thirst for your blood! It haunts you, it eats you, it just wants more and more of your fear!"

"What happened to Scaredy!" cried Smurfette.

"That's not Scaredy anymore!" cried Papa Smurf.

"How long did that take you to figure that out?" asked Brainy.

"Just now!"

I managed to get most of the smurfs into my house, suddenly the door was engulfed by a dark cloud and closes itself, as if it had a mind of its own. There were just a few more helpless smurfs outside as I rushed to the door to try to pull it open, but when I touched the knob, it felt like Hydrochloric Acid. The pain hurts so bad that I let go, everysmurf listen to the smurfs' pleas to open the door. A loud alien roar followed by the sound of the wind and shaking earth caused the smurfs to scream in panic, their cries were cut short one by one and silence quickly follows.

It was horrifying, so frightening that my children ran to the bedroom and hide underneath the bed. I looked out the window and saw nothing in the darkness beyond, for now, we're safe. "What's going on out there Chernov?" asked a smurf worriedly.

"Absolutely nothing," I replied, "But it won't stay like that for long."

I glanced at the door and noticed how it was still protected by darkness, its clear that there's no way we're going to stay here. "Whatever this entity is," I said, "Its trying to trap us inside."

I noticed that the glowing LED from the ceiling was not shining on the door, that's when I hatched an idea. I opened the cabinets at the counters and pulled out a Heavy-Duty lantern flashlight, the brightness from this flashlight is immense by smurf standards. I turned it on and shined it at the door, it suddenly seemed to shine brighter. The light from the flashlight was stripping the darkness away from the door, indicated by yellowish-white sparks bleeding from its surface. A moment later, the door was engulfed in static and it disappeared, leaving no trace of its existence behind.

"Light," I said, "Light is the only way we can destroy them."

I suddenly moved my flashlight to the wall and noticed green graffiti being revealed by its light, "The Taken Are Filled With Darkness" it says.

"Creepy," said Brainy, "Now what?"

"Well we go out there and face them," said Chernov, "Or this nightmare will never end."

I opened a nearby drawer to get some ammo for my handgun, only to find another page to the manuscript inside, "Another page," I said as I pulled it out, "This is becoming less and less of a coincidence, someone must be putting these in our path."

"What does the page say?" asked Papa Smurf.

"Read it and find out." I say as I handed the page to him, I did so because I don't want the smurfs to think I'm hiding something, I began to think that was a bad move on my part.

_The Dark Presence has enslaved several more smurfs, filling their husks with darkness. It send The Taken into hiding, for now. As soon as the smurfs leaves the protection of the light, it will send its minions against them._

"So that's what we have to do," said a smurf, "We hide until the sun rises."

"The Dark Presence knows where we are," I explained, "Where ever there is insufficient lighting, it will be there waiting for you. Even your own shadow isn't safe."

That got the smurfs even more frightened, the fear they show was more extreme than facing the threat of Gargamel. "You know what," I said as I grabbed my SIR and load it, "I'm going to go out there and fight those things until they stop coming, either with your help or not."

"Chernov," said Rachael, "This is suicide."

"That's not how the story goes," I noted as I held up the manuscript pages in my hand, "We're the main characters of this story that I supposing written, we're all slaves to it. There's nothing we can do but find the missing pages to make sense of what's going on, do you understand?"

Rachael didn't answer right away, "Yes."

"I know you're scared Rachael," said Chernov, "I am too, if anysmurf is going to take responsibility for whats happening here then it will be me. Because my name is on this manuscript and it is written in my own handwriting, this isn't your fault guys, its mine."

"Its too early to blame yourself Chernov." said Papa Smurf.

"I know," said Chernov, "We'll find the missing pages, it seems that these pages want to be found since they're so easy to find."

I turned towards the door and leave the house, tucking the manuscript pages into my jacket in the process. As soon as I stepped out of the door, the wind began to pick up once again, "Be careful Chernov," called Smurfette from inside my house, "Don't get hurt."

"I'm already hurt."

Shadows crawl from the ground and sky, circling me just meters away. Papa Smurf came out running, armed with the flashlight I had earlier. "You sure you're up to it Papa?" I asked him.

"This is my village," he said as Hefty and Handy joined him, "It is my duty to protect it."

"Inspiring," I replied, "There are some flares somewhere in my house, they'll help provide us some breathing room when we use them."

Over at the distance, the shadows clumped together and formed The Taken, monsters in smurf form. The cruelest reality is that they were once friends, and now they're our enemies. "Get ready," said Chernov, "We're going to hold them off until they stop coming."

"Is that the plan Chernov?" asked Hefty.

"Yeah."

When The Taken approached closer, they weren't green smurfs, they were the pure bloods. The smurfs who were caught outside when the Dark Presence sealed them from safety, now they're puppets who are forced to spend the rest of their days as slaves.

"The smurfberries seems ripe this year." said one of the Taken in a demonic voice.

I shined my flashlight at him, the light stripped away the darkness as Papa Smurf shines his flashlight on another Taken. Within a flash, I managed to remove the darkness off of one of the Taken and opened fire on it. Every time I score a hit, the bullet causes its flesh to flash sparks with every shot. I managed to kill it, it burst into static and vanished into thin air. Its fellow comrades met the same fate rather quickly, Papa Smurf felt horrible on what he'd just done.

Smurfette ran up to us and handed us a box of flares I keep in the coverts, she quickly ran back inside as more Taken shows up. "Only a smurf can lead you to the Smurf Village!" cried one of the Taken.

"We might be able to save them." hoped Papa Smurf.

"We can't save them Papa Smurf," I said to him, "There's nothing we could do but put them down."

After we were able to defeat them, more Taken shows up in even larger numbers. This time they were green smurfs, "Their land, their blood." one of them cried out.

It took me to realize that the green smurf Taken were part of the raid just a week ago, they must have been taken over by the Dark Presence on their way back home. No matter, the rage that send me hiding in my hole fired up again and I took them head on.

We pushed through the Smurf Village, Handy managed to hold them off with the flares as Hefty tried to use the pistol I gave him. Suddenly I saw a page of the manuscript sitting on a wooden barrel, I rushed up to it and grabbed it. I'll read it later, so I tuck it into my jacket for safe keeping.

Suddenly, Scaredy appeared and was moving in impossible speeds. He cut through the air like Sonic the Hedgehog, and was difficult to shoot. "The terror I endure was hard to smurf," said Scaredy, "No relief was in sight, I can't handle it one single bit!"

Papa Smurf managed to strip away the darkness off of Scaredy and Hefty kills him quickly, as Scaredy's body vanishes more Taken reveal themselves along with the last of the pure blood ones. "La li la la la la," one of the Taken crudely sang the the last haft of the Smurf Song chorus, La li la la la!"

It was difficult, but we pulled through. The battle raged on for 30 minutes, we managed to shoot the last of the Taken and the battle ends. We waited for a moment for more of the Taken to come, when there wasn't any more we were relieved. "My little smurfs turned against me," said Papa Smurf, "Why?"

"I don't know," I said, "Lets head back to my house, I'll make sure you guys sleep well tonight."

**TO BE CONTINUED...**


	3. Ch 3: Manuscript Pages

**Disclaimer: I do not own any characters that were created by someone else**

**Claimer: Go to my profile to view my characters**

The smurfs were relieved by the light from the sun, rising above the horizon. It was a major relief for them, but the Dark Presence was still there, sleeping, for now. Watching them all walk out of my house like little children in a playground remind me of the immaturity of my own green smurfs, I followed them as Papa Smurf do a head count on who was present and who wasn't.

"Great smurfs," said Papa Smurf, "We're missing just 15 smurfs."

"Not exactly Papa Smurf," I contradicted, "Some were all taken by the Dark Presence last night, I counted about 8 of them since we were trying to kill us."

"The other 7 smurfs must be missing," said Papa Smurf, "There could be a chance that they might be still hiding in their homes. Smurfs, search the village for clues and manuscript pages and bring them here immediately once you found them."

"Yes Papa Smurf." said the smurfs in unison.

As they were searching for the smurfs and pages, I went to work in preparing my house for the next night. I managed to contact the Green Smurf Colony via radio and asked them to send me supplies, turns out they were trying to contact me last week. Within half an hour, they managed to air-drop a couple of crates of supplies from the stealth bomber "The Baron Avenger," the crates parachuted down to earth gently and landed without damage.

I bust open the crates and looked inside, it was just what I need for me to build my project. With Handy's help, I managed to install a light fixture above my door, that would help keep the Taken off of my doorstep – literally. I also set up portable worklights behind my windows, if I turn them on they'll send a bright orange light out through the window. They'll help repel the Taken, but only for a few moments.

I also placed many worklights around the village, tested each and every one of them just to make sure they're working. As Handy and I returned back to my house, he asked me if we could light the entire village like a christmas tree. "That's not going to work," I said, "My generators cannot provide that amount of power."

It was a good plan, but not sensible. As Handy departs, I head back to Papa Smurf's house to see how he's doing. The emotional toll on the death of several smurfs can be hard on someone his age, sure enough Papa Smurf sat at a round table, his head pressed down against the surface. I left the front door open as I approach the other end of the table, "Papa Smurf," I asked, "Are you okay."

The village leader looked up, his eyes were sleepy, "Yeah," he answered, "I'm fine."

"I'm sorry for what happened last night," I apologized, "I've should have done more."

"We might be able to reverse all this," said Papa Smurf, "Maybe we can change the script."

The old timer was running on blind hope, he clearly hasn't come to terms of his losses. If Papa Smurf goes insane, then the Dark Presence will finish off the village. "You need anything?" I asked.

"A glass of water." he said, "That'll be all."

I walked over to the cabinet to fetch a glass cup, but when I opened it I saw a folded page of the manuscript placed right inside one of the cups. "Papa Smurf," I said, "You you're not got going to believe this."

"What?" he asked.

"I found a page of the manuscript," I said, "In your cupboard."

"You did?"

I picked the cup containing the page and sat it in front of him, "Like I said, these pages want to be found." I told him.

Papa Smurf pulled the page out of the cup and unfolded it, reading it out loud.

_The nightmare Papa Smurf has seen cannot compare to the horrors he'd experienced in the past, this is a whole new ball game, and with it its own rules. He sat at his desk, silently grieving the loss of his little smurfs, only to be interrupted by Chernov as he walks into the house to check up on him._

"Now that already happened just a few minutes ago." said Chernov.

That that moment, Brainy came running in through the open door, holding several pages of the manuscript in his hand, "Papa Smurf," he said, "I found more of the pages! Turns out it was in my personal library, I don't know how they smurf their way in there."

He presents each page, setting them side by side of each other. There were 3 pages, and the paragraphs looked very big. Papa Smurf read each and every one of them, one at a time.

_Smurfs from all over the Smurf Village are finding pages of the manuscript among their possessions, hiding in shelves and cabinets. However, all the pages were mixture of events that already happened and events that's going to happen. They don't tell when its going to happen, they just serve as a warning. Right around noon, the smurfs who found one or more pages of the manuscript presents them to Papa Smurf, having already read them._

_Just exactly what the story depicted they would._

Papa Smurf sat pushes the page asides and read the 2nd page:

_Chernov was in deep paranoia, facing a monster who he has in common. He had placed worklights all over town, placing them in strategic areas where the Taken would imposingly run to. He had encountered many threats in the past, many antagonists that wish to either destroy him or kill him. Now he faces one who is just like him, equally matched. _

The village leader sat that page with the first before reading the final page:

_The story depicted in the manuscript pages are coming true, all written by the hand of Chernov Reznov. However, they weren't written in his own terms. The Dark Presence, rather than taking him over completely, simply touched him – used him as a puppet to craft a story using power he did not know he had. Chernov's will however, proved strong, though the Dark Presence did not know this – for he was only playing along._

"I have to admit that I'm not the most easiest person to toil with." I said.

"Indeed you are," said Papa Smurf as he handed the pages to me, "Noting past experiences with you and how you saved the village several times in the past, I'm sure you'll figure out something."

Around noon, several smurfs turned in the manuscript pages they found to Papa Smurf, just as the story said they would. They had indeed read the pages, some were horrified by the events in some of them awhile others cannot stand the words of them. The smurfs handed back at least 8 pages, all of them depict random events from the past and future, some sounded even ridiculous.

It took awhile, but Papa Smurf read through all the pages.

Page 1:

_Horrifying as it was, the Dark Presence can be harmed by light – and only light – which is why it never attacks during the presence of the sun. To the smurfs, it's its a major relief._

Page 2:

_The green smurfs who staged the prank slash raid of the Smurf Village heads back home in the dead of night, laughing, they never had this much fun since the Humanoid Wars. The fun and games end when their path was barred by a tree, toppling over after something broke its spine. As the green smurf convoy stops, the shadows began to move and surrounds them. The moon's light was quickly blocked by the shadows as they all shroud themselves onto the vehicles of the the green smurfs, they can only scream as the Dark Presence attacked them._

Page 3:

_For a week, Chernov works feverishly in low lighting. Just enough to see yet not enough to harm the Dark Presence standing behind him. Being an editor and a muse, the Dark Presence had Chernov write the story it wanted and he did so without question, even writing scenarios that the Dark Presence had in mind. To the entity, Chernov was the most suitable and most cooperative subject it has ever touched and left him alone at times. _

_That was the Dark Presence's first big mistake._

Page 4:

_The Dark Presence had taken over as many humanoid creatures it can get its hands on. Despite being common, the green smurfs are the most difficult to control compared to their predecessors. They run when dealing with a huge opposing monster, but the green smurfs fight ferociously – even when all hope seems lost. So it was no surprise when the Dark Presence found it easy to get a hold of a few of the sky blue smurfs as they simply ran from its face, if it has one._

_As most of the Smurf Village takes shelter inside Chernov's house, the Dark Presence managed to shut the door in the face of a few unfortunate smurfs left outside. They all tried to pound on the door, even try to break the windows, but it was too late as the Dark Presence gobbles them up like Bigmouth in a buffet restaurant._

Page 5:

_Several green smurf fought ferociously as several poltergeist smurfvees chases them, followed by the green smurf Taken. The Colony had prepared for an invasion from within itself, having been alerted by Chernov about the Dark Presence. Armed with enough lights to brighten New York City and more guns and booze than America, they managed to keep the Dark Presence at bay until morning. The only problem, they could not hold it back forever._

Page 6:

_Hefty fights on viciously, his leg broken after being thrown across the village like a rag doll. He had proven quite valuable to the Dark Presence, so when Hefty used up all of his energy the entity engulfs him in an instant._

Page 7:

_Brainy cries as the Taken held up its ax, ready to chop the four-eyed smurf's head off. He crouched down and squeezed his eyes shut, ready for the killing blow. When he noticed it didn't came, he opened his eyes and found himself immersed in the light of a LED outdoor lamp above his head and completely alone in the night – for the moment, he was safe._

Page 8:

_The smurfs are becoming more anxious with every page discovered, the demise of many are already written and cannot be changed. They looked for someone to blame, and so blame Chernov. Despite taking full responsibility, he said in a reassuring voice, "I can control this monster, I am no different from it."_

_Many didn't believe his words, until they recall the page Papa Smurf read to them depicting the situation. That's when the Dark Presence engulfs their homes and turned inanimate objects such as barrels and rocks against them._

After Papa Smurf finished reading the last page, the smurfs didn't know what to think or believe. Chernov has indeed written their fates, the fact that he did so on his own free will (as said so in the manuscript pages) made them think that all hope seems lost. The serge of confidence however will return once nights falls once again.

**TO BE CONTINUED...**


	4. Ch 4: Dark Hearts

**Disclaimer: I do not own any characters that were created by someone else**

**Claimer: Go to my profile to view my characters**

I each handed a smurf a flashlight and a handgun, night was falling fast, so there was no time for practice. I managed to place several caches of ammo, flares, flash bang grenades, and flare guns all over the village – with the help from my idiotic friends at the Green Smurf Colony of course.

We gathered all the Smurflings into my house, which is well lit on the inside. I also handed them flashlights, just in case if the power goes out. I only trusted my smurflings to use a gun, and the twins will get their own gun. I regrouped with the smurfs and double-checked everything, since the Colony is only 10 kilometers away we'll might be only facing whats left of the raid party from last week, as well as several sky blue smurf Taken.

The smurfs were obviously scared and uncomfortable, prone for mistakes. Papa Smurf's reassurances will not be enough to calm the smurfs down. "So what's the plan Chernov," asked Smurfette.

"We fight them until sunrise," I replied, "There won't be many Taken tonight, not many of the devils in smurf form that is."

I was referring to the poltergeist Taken, though the smurfs didn't get the hint, I only managed to scare them more.

As the sun was setting, all the smurfs turned on all the worklights as Rachael mans the searchlight I had set up at the center of the village. For all I knew, the battle will end in disaster. I managed to find one of the manuscript pages pinned to a tree, I grabbed it and read it silently:

_During the fight against the Dark Presence, most of the smurfs were running around in a state of shock. Some accidentally shoot each other as others cowardly hide in their homes, even Papa Smurf can't stand the danger. Grandpa Smurf looks out the window inside Chernov's house as he tries his best to keep the smurflings' spirits up, "You know," he says, "We're actually winning."_

_That was a lie, and the Smurflings fall for it, yet Cherskey and Nelly knew deep down that the whole village was descending towards hell. They hope that their parents and the adult smurfs will be alright; Rachael coming through the front door all bloody and injured however shattered all hope they had left._

For all I know, that could be tonight, we shall see. I stuffed the page into my jacket before joining up with Papa Smurf, assuming that he'll stay by my side during the impending attack. "Tell me Chernov," he said, "Are we all smurfed."

"Yeah pretty much." I honestly say.

"How reassuring." said Papa Smurf sarcastically.

The winds began to pick up as shadows twist and twirl like black ink in water, all the smurfs prepare themselves as they watch the shadows clump together to form The Taken. Though there wasn't many of them this time, however the smurfs overreacted and began firing way.

"Hard work brings good luck." said one of the Taken.

The possessed green smurfs marched forward towards the smurfs, when the smurfs shined their flashlight at their faces they got mad and began rushing towards them, ready to take a swing with their ax or pick. The group of smurfs explodes like a school of fish, running in random directions awhile screaming in terror. Rachael proved determined and help take out most of the Taken with the searchlight, it was so bright that it almost light up the entire Smurf Village.

The smurfs managed to take out some of the Taken, but when the husks of their friends showed up things got hairy. I watched as the familiar sky blue smurf form of a Taken rushes at me with an ax. "Never go to Gargamel's hovel!" it said in its demonic voice.

Calmy, I just shined my flashlight at it. The Taken stumbled back, blinded by the light as I stripped off its shroud of darkness. After a flash signaled that I removed it, a single bullet from my SIR made it vanish in mid-air.

I could tell that the smurfs were not handling the situation properly, do to all the sporadic gunshots and flashlights waving all over the place. I knew it was a bad idea to arm them, they never dealt with a situation like this before in their lives. Just like it said in the story, they were beginning to shoot themselves accidentally and were going down as casualties. I rushed up to several of them and managed to haul their ass back to safety, simply leaving them in Papa Smurf's house which was well lit with electronic lamps, Smurfette helped take care of them as I keep bringing them in.

After delivering the 7th injured smurf to Papa Smurf's house, I saw Hefty fly through the air screaming in terror. He hit the ground hard and I heard a bone snapped, though Hefty proved tough as he's the only smurf so far that hadn't broken down in fear. He dragged himself underneath an outdoor lamp just outside his house, protected underneath its glow. Since nobody told him of his impending fate, he wasn't aware what was going to happen when the lamp protecting him pops.

No longer protected by light, the front door of his home opened and the Dark Presence sucked him inside. I heard him scream in agony for a few seconds before going silent, goodbye Hefty.

Nearby, I saw Brainy running from a Taken. He tripped and fell to the ground at an area of the Smurf Village with least activity, away from the help of his fellow comrades. The Taken raised up his ax and Brainy squeeze his eyes shut to wait for the killing blow, then suddenly the Taken vaporized when the lamp above Brainy kicked on and bathe the four-eye smurf in light. When he opened his eyes, his facial expression shows relief.

I rejoined the fight and did my best to protect Papa Smurf, I need him and his leadership. If the Dark Presence kills Papa Smurf, then the whole village is done for. I saw my girlfriend manning the searchlight, killing numerous Taken as they try to come near her. Suddenly one of the Taken came up from behind with lightning speed and plunged its ax into Rachael's shoulder.

My heart sank to my stomach from seeing that, but Rachael proves tough. She grabbed the ax and pulled it out of her shoulder before tossing it aside like a twig, then she grabbed the Taken by the neck with her hand and lift it up in the air, all in the while ignoring the acid pain from its protected shroud. She tossed him in front of the searchlight and boost the light, the Taken was immediately destroyed immediately.

I rushed up to her as he stumbles away from the searchlight, "Rachael!" I cried.

"Don't worry," she said, "Its just a minor scratch wound."

"Yeah right," I bluntly say, "Lets get you back home, okay."

I managed to get Rachael through the carnage, being a green smurf she never quits, and so walks in a fast pace. She never complained about serious wounds, not right away at least. I never seen her receive such a gash this bad before, she seemed to be taking it well. Once I got her to the safety of our home, Grandpa Smurf opened the door and she walked through. Once she's within safety, I threw myself back into the fight. I looked back and saw Grandpa Smurf shutting and locking the door behind him, how smart of him.

The Taken forces are just beginning to weaken, it looks like good news. I regrouped with Papa Smurf as he and Brainy tried their best to control the situation, "I think we're winning," said Brainy, "I think we're going to smurf through!"

He should have shut his mouth when he had the chance, cause Hefty came around the corner, armed with an axe and filled and covered in darkness. "No pain, no gain!" he screamed in a mixture of his voice and a demon's.

"Oh crap." I muttered.

Hefty charged at us and took a swing at Brainy, he managed to dodge the ax and ran off to the distance. Papa Smurf jolted back as Hefty charged at us, I shined my flashlight into his face and proceed to remove his dark shroud. Hefty proves strong, normally The Taken will run from a light source but Hefty just marched towards me with his arm over his eyes. "I'll smurf Gargamel up good," he rambled, "No way he'll threaten me! Azrael won't stand a chance, I'll smurf him over a cliff once I got a hold of him!"

Suddenly Hefty roared like King Kong before charging at me like a rhino, I managed to jump out of the way as he ran passed me with full velocity. Hefty turned around and I refocused the flashlight on him, it proved difficult to remove his shroud. Within a flash, the darkness armor was removed and I proceed in gunning him down. Hefty took the bullets like it was simply a pellet gun, and tried to come at me with his ax a final time.

I kicked him back and he toppled backwards, I tried to finish him off but he ran off into the night, with lightning speed. It won't be the last time I'll see him.

Despite the smurfs' horrible performance record, we managed to win the battle. Once Papa Smurf given them the all clear, the smurfs began to cheer and irresponsibly fired their weapons into the air. It was entertaining to watch as the bullets come raining back to earth, no one was killed but it gave the smurfs a hard lesson about gravity: What goes up, must come down.

The stupidity was appalling, so appalling that I considered shooting them myself. Luckily I don't have to, since they already shot themselves. I was kind enough to help treat all 20 injured smurfs, extracting the bullets from their bodies and patching them up with alcohol and gauze. Pathetic, they're screams will attract predators that lurk the nearby woods.

I brought them all to Papa Smurf's house as me, him, and Smurfette tend to the wounded. He was too appalled by how things turned out, "Why would you shoot each other?" he asked his little smurfs.

"I can't tell whose friend or foe," said one of the smurfs, "I don't know who we're fighting."

"Did you check their eyes?" I asked.

"I never thought of that."

That's it, I'm heading home. I simply walked out of Papa Smurf's house and head straight back to my house, I have my own loved one to tend too. When I reached home, I saw Rachael was doing well as the smurflings sat nearby. She was laying on the couch, sleeping, her wound had remarkably healed with no sign of its existence. I touch my temple where my wound was, it was still there, just dry – something was wrong with me, I don't know why.

For all I knew, the smurfs would start to blame me for what has happened. Their friends hurt and weak from the guns I gave them, I knew responsibility but they were far from knowing what it means. So a crowd of them began to protest outside of my home, threatening to defect. I stepped out to face them, nearly a hundred angry eyes stared into mine as they wave their fists in the air with bitter rage. I have dealt with this before, but its going to take more than a bomb to snap some sense into them.

"This is all your fault," one of them cried, "You caused this."

Thankfully they don't have the heart to use the guns, judging on how they handled them.

Papa Smurf won't help me, of course he won't. Intimidation always comes around to bite you on the ass, so I need an alternative. I suddenly received help from an ironic source, a flash of light announce a page of the manuscript falling to earth between me and the smurfs. One of the smurfs made a mad grab for it, and read it. His eyes widened with fear and tossed it back before stumbling back into the crowd of smurfs, everyone went silent in response.

I walked up to the page and picked it up, now I see why the smurf was terrified when I read whats on it.

_The fellow smurfs are becoming more and more human, going against Papa Smurf's leadership. They're bond to the events of the story, both the protagonist and antagonist. No way shall they harm Chernov, for he has already written his safety. Once the smurfs' hearts are filled with rage and vengence, the Dark Presence will take them over completely, assuming if they reach that state of emotion._

When the smurfs heard my words, they all fell silent, realizing that everything they do and say are part of the story. The feeling begins to sink in: They realized they're trapped in a story till the very end, and not everyone will make it out alive. Papa Smurf rushed up to me right away as Grandpa Smurf stood near the door to my house, "I'm sorry Chernov." he said.

"No Paps, I'm sorry." I said as I held up the manuscript page, "I made this happen, all of it, either intentionally or not. Someone has to be held responsible, and it would be me. But how in the world did the Dark Presence came came here in the first place?"

That must be the question on everysmurf's mind, but before we could come up with an opinion the Dark Presence attacked again. This time, it was even more horrifying.

**TO BE CONTINUED...**


	5. Ch 5: Out Of Control

**Disclaimer: I do not own any characters that were created by someone else**

**Claimer: Go to my profile to view my characters**

Just like it was depicted in the manuscript, it took over everything everything in the Smurf Village. Random inanimate objects nearby such as wooden barrels, planks of wood, and some pipes rose to the air, twitching crazily. The poltergeists hurled themselves at us as if being thrown by someone, the Dark Presence soon placed its shroud all over the homes of the smurfs as a black tornado appeared over the lake. To me, this tornado must be the Dark Presence itself.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that your outmatched, I'm going to need an army to face this thing. That army lies 10 kilometers away from the Smurf Village, I had to reach them for the needed help. According to the manuscript, the Green Smurf Colony will also endure the same situation. Not a moment to loose, I rushed back inside and grabbed my backpack and loaded it with ammunition, batteries, flares, and a spare Heavy-Duty flashlight.

I put the backpack on and grabbed my Heavy-Duty lantern Flashlight and SIR rifle mod, this is going to be a rough night. Rachael and the twins knew whats at stake immediately and also packed similar supplies, "Meet me back at the Green Smurf Colony," I told her, "This thing is after me, not you."

"Be careful Chernov," said Rachael, "I promise to be good."

I rushed outside with a bullhorn and made my announcement on it, "Everybody head to the Green Smurf Colony!" I ordered, "We cannot face the Dark Presence here, we need industrial help!"

All the smurfs began rushing east immediately, some were screaming and waving their arms wildly in the process. Thankfully they didn't drop their flashlights, but some dropped their guns. Smurfette carried Baby Smurf out of the village as the Smurflings followed behind, Snappy managed to grab a hold of a gun dropped by one of the smurfs. Papa Smurf and Grandpa Smurf joined up with me as we head deep into the forest, to be honest I was scared out of my mind.

"Did you have this problem during my absence?" I asked.

"There were signs," said Papa Smurf, "But we'd ignored them."

I managed to find a page on a stump of whats left of a tree, I grabbed it and read it out loud as we ran:

_The scream of a bird rips through the night like lightning as the tornado proceeds to engulf the village; The possessed husk of Feathers swoop down from the sky like a fighter jet, his eyes glistened red from the darkness. He let out a kaw before scooping up Flying Smurf with lightning speed. The prey screamed, his eyes full of tears, helpless as Feathers carried him off into the darkness beyond._

"KAW!" I heard what sounds like the cry of a crow.

I looked up and saw a large bird shrouded in darkness swoops down and snatched Flying Smurf off the ground, "HELP ME!" he cried as Feathers increases his altitude.

As Feathers disappears into the night sky, the tornado grew in strength and we quickly ran off into the forest. I saw our fellow comrades run through the forest, passing by several Taken of green smurfs in the process. "Please, don't feed the animals!" cried one of the Taken.

Finding our way through the forest was easy, since we knew the place inside and out. But for further distances, its still no problem for me. I knew every crack, crevice, and cave of the region with more detail than the smurfs. So Papa Smurf and Grandpa Smurf were following me the rest of the way, "Lookout," cried Grandpa Smurf, "Get down."

We all jumped down as a wrench flies above us before bouncing off the truck of a tree, looking behind us we saw more of the Taken appear out of the darkness. "Always take care of your tools." one of them blabbered.

The fight got more intense when the tornado, now 10 or 20 meters behind us, plopped down a thick puddle of black liquid on every corner of the village. Now there's no turning back, and no excuse to not go to the Green Smurf Colony. I helped Papa Smurf and Grandpa Smurf up and we shined our flashlights at the Taken, since we were ridiculously outnumbered I pulled out a flare and lit it. The brightness of the green flare drove the Taken back, stripping off their darkness armor just before the flare goes out. I made sure not a single one remains, so we gunned them down.

I don't know how far we went through the forest, it felt like infinity. We were running for our lives, running from whats left of our home. Everything suddenly felt spread out, as if I'm drifting apart from the universe or something. My mind become serene, the whole world began to feel like a dream. Reality melts down into dark shadows, and I realized I'm now alone.

Or something else was going on, everything was dark yet I could see shadows simmering around me clearly. The shadows flicker like fire, yet they produce no light. There's no light anywhere, there's not even a surface to stand on but I was standing on something – something that wasn't actually there. I call this, "The Realm," in it was simply nothing. It can only be filled by what you want to fill it, imagination can ever be so useful here.

I was simply standing there, staring out into this realm. Suddenly a bright flash of light engulfed my vision and my eyes struggle to adapt, I used my arm to shield my face to prevent the glare from blinding me. The light subsides a little and I managed to see a man, about 2 meters tall standing over me. I thought he was God at first, but when the light's glow becomes manageable I saw that he was someone else.

He was wearing a brown trench coat, wearing a ushanka which covers his brown hair, his beard was as thick as Papa Smurf's but it was also a glistening brown. "My descendent," he said in a heavenly tone, "I came to you to help you."

"Who are you?" I asked, "What happened to me?"

"That's not important at this point," said the man, "What matters right now is this, the Dark Presence was created right after you locked yourself up in your own home. You see, the Dark Presence was created by you after the requirements to gain such power was fullfilled. It now thinks for itself, and now it wants to destroy you in order to gain true freedom. You keep the Dark Presence chained within your own heart, bound to a horrible lost that once bring evil to you."

"I know what you mean, the death of my mother."

"Exactly, though it was unexpected that growing up this way would bring you to your current state. To you, you have nothing to loose and so drove a passion of helping others, the selflessness keeps you going and prevents you from giving up. The Dark Presence was angered from that move you played, making it think that you are under its control then stab it in the back after you wrote the ending, when its not looking."

"I don't understand."

"You'll regain your memories in time, you have any questions?"

My mind was confused with loose theories and poor calculations, I just have to ask. "You're telling me that I made all this up?"

"Yes," said the man, "Yet you're unable to control it all. Despite having to write some parts of the story on your own terms, the Dark Presence had also created some scenes of its own by tricking you into writing them. Your fear of the fact that you are unable to control the Dark Presence helped fueled its strength in the short term."

"I have to admit that I was scared."

"Your not scared at the creature, you are scared of yourself."

"I agree."

"Ah, you are claiming responsibility of all this crap you accidentally let loose and not in denial of it all. Your sanity helps you control most of the situation, but you are bound to the events of the story and you must play by the manuscript till the very end. So you are not entirely in control, you never were."

The fact stung me to the core, I suddenly felt sick. The feeling of still being trapped sets in once more, if I'm forced to play my own creation's game then I must do it in style.

"I gotta find the pages," I said, "All of them, I must make sense of it all. If I written the story with my own free will, how come I can't remember anything and why are the pages scattered in unusual places?"

"Someone else has that same power as you," said the man, "Maybe a older relative of yours, on your mom's side of the family."

Only one name come to mind, "Gargamel." I muttered under my breath, "But it doesn't make any sense."

"Gargamel tried to cast a spell on you so he could try to control you," explained the man, "Unfortunately the spell backed-fired and made you create the Dark Presence, your anger and frustration made the spell malfunction."

"I don't have proof, how do I know Gargamel did all this?"

"Its in the manuscript, so you can relax with the fact that its not entirely your fault. Your friends have already found the page depicting Gargamel as we speak, I must leave now so you can end this."

At that moment, everything became bright as the corona of the sun as a horrible ringing sensation ripped through my ears. My hands aren't able to muffle the deafening sound, I squeezed my eyes shut as tight as I can as I collapse to the ground from the noise – with the world becoming red.

**TO BE CONTINUED...**


	6. Ch 6: Good Travels Through Day

**Disclaimer: I do not own any characters that were created by someone else**

**Claimer: Go to my profile to view my characters**

When I flickered my eyes open, I saw Harmony blowing his horn directly into my face. Instinct made my fist meet his cheek with the force of a freight train, the smurf flew across the forest floor and smashed against a tree making a loud cracking sound. The smurfs pinned me down as I struggled with mindless determination, I was unaware of reality when Papa Smurf snapped me out of my delirium, "Chernov," I heard his voice say, "Easy boy, your safe."

I quickly realized it was morning, the sun happened to be shining in my face which explained the bright glare after I met my so-called ancestor. Fellow smurfs stood before me as I lay in a makeshift bed, made out of tree branches and cloth. "What happened?" I asked as I sat up.

"You suddenly passed out after one of the Taken threw a wrench at your head," said Papa Smurf, "It wasn't easy but we managed to get you to safety."

"Is everyone alright?" I asked, "Is anyone hurt?"

"WE lost a few more smurfs last night," said Papa Smurf, "We can't find them or their bodies, they must have been taken by the Dark Presence."

"Have you found any manuscript pages?"

"We found one explaining your sudden blackout, here it is."

Papa Smurf pulled out the manuscript page from his pants and handed it to me, "I don't want to ask why you keep it there." I comment as I unfolded the page and read whats in it.

_Chernov didn't see it coming, a wrench thrown by one of the Taken slams into the back of his head. Knocked out from the blow, Chernov descended into a dream where he was in the Dark Place – a world of which is at the borders of our existence. There, he met a man claiming to be his ancestor, giving Chernov advice and vital information on how to beat the Dark Presence. After the meeting of the ancestor, Chernov was awakened by Harmony by blowing his horn into the green smurf's face. The rude awakening caused Chernov give Harmony a "tuning adjustment," with his fist._

I tucked the page into my jacket and got back onto my feet, "Where's my flashlight?" I asked.

"Here," said Brainy as he handed me my Heavy-Duty Lantern Flashlight, "This flashlight is quite heavy Chernov."

"Well we won't need it in the day," I reassured as I take the flashlight, "Unless we're going into a cave or something."

I placed my lantern flashlight into my backpack and picked up my rifle before we head on out, all the smurfs were organized and lined up in a square formation as we made our way through the forest. Me, Papa Smurf, and Grandpa Smurf lead the way. Harmony quickly recovered from the blow I gave him, I later apologized from the blow which he surprisingly accept.

As we hiked through the forest, we stumble upon more manuscript pages. I grabbed each and everyone of them and read them out loud along the way, which is the only entertainment for everyone:

_Gargamel was once again coming up with a way to capture the smurfs, this time he'll attempt it on a moonless night. Just about 10 meters out the front door, he saw the shadows move across the ground and form the Taken – the vicious monster in human form model. They chased Gargamel and Azrael across the forest, already tasting the kill. The wizard tried many of his spells against the Taken, everyone of them failed miserably until he cast a fireball at one of them. The fireball blast apart the Taken and vaporized them, Gargamel thought fire was the only way to destroy them, unaware that it was the light that killed them and not the heat._

Another page I found sitting on a mossy rock:

_Seeing all those smurfs once again taking refuge in the Green Smurf Colony, Richard Reznov made a joke about it on the Green Smurf Radio program. "If we keep letting these smurfs in every time there is danger," he cracked, "They'll have to settle down here and take permanent residence. That way the danger is always here and we'll have more action, until Chernov ruins the fun."_

_Not everyone takes it as a joke, but a serious quote. The thoughts of it were mix, yet everyone has more important things to do rather than criticizing such a comment. It fell on deaf ears by the end of the day._

And here's another page I found on a rotting log:

_The pages were scattered in the smurfs paths, as if someone had been placing them there for them to find. The manuscript pile grows as Chernov wonders what else he had unleashed, eventually all the pages would be found at some point. Once that happened, the ending will commence and the events depicted in the book will merge into a book called "Endeavor" and many copies will rain from the skies. Everyone but Chernov knew how the books were came into existence, he just keeps his mouth shut and doesn't same much when asked the grueling question._

These pages were well written, and indeed my handwriting, I found myself becoming obsessed in finding more and more of the pages, I found another page well hidden in a bush during a restroom break:

_Realizing that Chernov has the power to control the universe via his writing, it was the greatest power he ever cherished. He knew deep down that this power is for the right hands, so he took careful steps on not to abuse this power. _

_It is not clear how he'll be able to pass this power on to his children, and will never be known for ages to come._

Looking for these pages probably became an obsession, as depicted in the story. That was something to keep a note of, cause I can't change the story once its already written. Heck, its already written, but I'm always a good actor. Maybe I've written something that would give me power, strength to either destroy the Dark Presence or send it into a permanent hibernation state.

As we walked through the forest, I kept an eye on the shadows. The Dark Presence haunts us 24/7, the story however forbids it from striking us either directly or with the Taken in day. The sun made sure of that, but it might have some strength to attack if we stumble into the shadows of the trees. We've been underneath the shade during the entire walk, the story must be protecting us. This ironic protection whispers the power I held, I could write the destruction of the Dark Presence in it.

No, that's way too late. I have to wait till the end of the story before I could write its demise, I was not sure if that could work though, but its worth a shot.

The sight of my fellow brethren was comforting, though a part of me brought up the anger and frustration caused by them. I have to remind myself that they share my father's blood, and I shall respect them as much as my parent. Me and the smurfs walked through without being stopped, we've done this about a few times in the recent past so to many green smurfs it is all too common.

"Aw, the Green Smurf Colony," said Brainy, "The only place I ever get respect around here."

"Smurf up Brainy." mumbled a smurf in response.

"Okay my smurfs," said Papa Smurf, "You stay grouped together as I go with Chernov. Grandpa Smurf, do you want to come or stay with the smurfs?"

"I'll come with you." said Grandpa Smurf, "I wanna see the look on Rick's face when he finds out that Chernov wrote his words."

"Speaking of words," I added, "Words spread fast throughout the Colony, more faster than in the Smurf Village, Rick would immediately be aware of our sudden arrival by now."

We approached a camouflaged tarp tent, underneath was a radio sitting on a metal barrel. I turned the radio on and heard Rick's voice blabber out of its speaker, I pulled out the manuscript page depicting his joke and showed it to the elder smurfs as he speaks.

"If we keep letting these smurfs in every time there is danger," cracked Rick's voice on the radio, "They'll have to settle down here and take permanent residence. That way the danger is always here and we'll have more action, until Chernov ruins the fun. Speaking of our Wunderwaffe, he is here right now as I speak. I shall wait for him, so in the meantime here's some new songs we received from dear old dad. This is Richard Reznov, signing out."

The radio began to play some music that I had never heard before, but I didn't stay to listen. Me, Papa, and Grandpa Smurf had a job to do, and so the entire Green Smurf Colony must be warned about the Dark Presence.

**TO BE CONTINUED...**


	7. Ch 7: Preparations

**Disclaimer: I do not own any characters that were created by someone else**

**Claimer: Go to my profile to view my characters**

We walked across GSV 1 to the Command Center, the "capital building" of the Green Smurf Colony. At the moment we set a foot through the front door, Rick was there to greet us. "I miss you guys," he said as he shook my hand, "Chernov, I've been trying to get a hold of you for a week. Is there something wrong?"

"You should have figured that out when I showed up here," I said sternly, "The smurfs are in danger again and I'm in deep sh#t, a story I don't remember writing is coming true and-"

"You're writing again?" interrupted Rick.

"I don't know Rick," I barked, "A story I have no memory of writing is coming to life, I literally wrote the words of your joke."

I showed him the manuscript page of the joke he made on the radio and Rick read it, his face was priceless when he returns his attention to me, "Oh my god Chernov," he says as Grandpa Smurf snickers, "Have you become God?"

"I can't believe you are that stupid," I comment, "There is a monster trying to kill us, the Dark Presence. Its taking over everything in its path to wipe us all out, smurfs and inanimate objects, even Gargamel was under assault one night."

"This is the kind of stuff people are put into asylum Chernov," noted Rick, "Are you loosing your mind?"

"I already had," I admitted, "And know its on the loose, in the form of nightmares I had intentionally create."

"Come to think of it," said Rick, "I did receive an SOS call from those green smurfs who tried to play a prank on the Smurf Village, they said about being attacked by the shadows. I asked what they mean but the transmission was cut before they gave me an answer, that is why I tried to contact you all week. When you didn't respond, we fear the worst."

"So what did you do?" I asked.

"I sent some green smurfs to investigate these, shadows," explained Rick, "I sent about 4 green smurfs to the Smurf Village to see what's going on, they never reported back nor did they ever returned. The SOS transmission was received and night, and they said they were attacked by shadows. After giving it much needed thought, I advised everyone to sleep with the lights on at night till you either contact me or show up personally."

"Well I'm here now," I said, "And I need you to ask you a vital favor."

"What is it that is so important?" asked Rick.

"For some reason, the manuscript pages that are making all of this happen are scattered across our paths." I explained, "These pages can turn up anywhere, so please keep an eye out for them. Okay?"

"I'll do what I can Chernov," said Rick, "Is there anything else?"

"Have the entire Green Smurf Colony prepare for war," I said, "Tell the green smurfs that they're about to face an enemy that is no other, tell them they're going to face an entity that rules the night. And the only way we can fight this thing is light."

"Finally some action," said Rick, "Music to my ears."

"Its not war," I noted, "Its pure horror."

Clearly I had never been more serious than that moment to him, as he went onto the radio to alert the entire colony I stumbled into Rachael as I was just about to leave. Cherskey and Nelly were right behind her, they look more tired than expected. "Chernov?" asked Rachael.

"Yes Rachael?" I answered.

"Would you please don't leave me alone again?" she asked, "I couldn't sleep with The Taken after me and the children are hard to control and..."

She paused for a moment before wrapping her arms around me and cried, "Rachael," I said, "I can't protect you forever, there are times where you must face situations by yourself. I'll be able to provide some support, but I have my limits."

"I understand," she sobbed, "Just, don't leave me alone in this nightmare."

She's right, I can't leave her alone in this nightmare. Rachael views me both a love partner and protector, she has faith in me for her safety. The best I could do is to teach her self-protection, but I've been teaching our children more than her.

After Rick warned the green smurfs of an impending attack at night, they immediately sprang into action. Rick instructed everyone to prepare for conventional war, but this time they must have a flashlight installed into their guns and must have another flashlight on hand. I then guided the green smurfs personally by having them set up worklights at strategic locations, and also one spotlight for each smurf village.

The green smurfs don't know what they're about to fight, I told them that its an entity that rules the night. I told them pretty much everything, told all 1,000 green smurfs. They had mixed feelings about what they're facing, they even had questions if the Dark Presence really exist. Then I brought up the Dark Presence's uncanny ability to take permanent control of animals and inanimate objects, and I also brought up the raid party that failed to return to the Green Smurf Colony.

Now they seemed even more confused than before, I can't blame them. But I knew that the Dark Presence will attack the Colony, and it will come after me first. I am the only one who chains the Dark Presence, if it kills me then it will be free to take over le Pays maudit and no one will not be able to stop it.

As the sun prepares to set once again, I double-checked everything just to be sure. Made sure that the green smurfs had flashlights with fresh batteries and fully stocked on ammunition, flares, and flash-bang grenades. I advised the green smurfs to take cover in a well-lit light source when they need to. They seem pretty rational, I wonder if they would still be rational once the sun rises the next day.

Rachael takes shelter inside the Command Center with the kids, I got out my Heavy-Duty Lantern Flashlight and replaced the battery with a lithium one. I tested it just to make sure it works, I have never seen a flashlight this bright ever since. I turned it off and regrouped with my fellow green smurfs, they all seemed a bit anxious on who they're fighting, "So this Dark Presence only comes out at night?" one of them asked.

"Yes," I replied, "What do you think the term, Dark Presence, came from?"

"You seemed a bit moody lately Chernov," said the green smurf again, "What did this thing do to you anyway?"

"Trap me and all of us into a story written unintentionally by my own hands," I replied, "Once we defeat this thing, I'll make sure that it stays defeated for the rest of its existence."

"What ever you say Chernov," said the green smurf, "I always knew you have too much power."

"Power that I am not aware of that is," I said, "Maybe because its for the good of all."

I walked away and caught sight of another manuscript page, pinned to a bulletin board used for daily announcements and recreation activities. I walked up to it and removed the manuscript page from the board and read.

_The green smurf lumberjack works ferociously, trying to meet his wood quota awhile under the stars of the night. He was tired, just wanted to rest. So he sat down his chainsaw on a wooden table and sat down on a nearby chair to stair straight up into the night sky, it would be the last thing he ever sees. A possessed Hefty zipped into the area like lightning and plunged his ax into the green smurf's skull, killing him before he ever noticed._

_The body tumbled to the ground like a rag doll as Hefty swung at it with his ax again, this time plunging the ax back into the skull and broke the weapon's handle. Furious, Hefty tossed the handle in a random direction before his eyes meet the chainsaw. The Taken approached it carefully, his dark eyes fixated on the chainsaw's teeth that was clobbered with saw dust. Hefty picks up the chainsaw and starts up its motor, shadows engulfed it as it roars to life._

**TO BE CONTINUED...**


	8. Ch 8: Total War

**Disclaimer: I do not own any characters that were created by someone else**

**Claimer: Go to my profile to view my characters**

The sun had set, it's now or never. As the stars slowly become visible, we all sat in wait for the Dark Presence to show up. As we wait, I walked up to a small clearing as fellow green smurfs hide in the bushes. I simply stood there and closed my eyes, listening for the supernatural within the wind. Slowly but surely, the wind started to blow but remained at a constant speed.

"What is he doing?" I heard a green smurf whisper behind my back.

I stood there and listened, clutching my Heavy-Duty Lantern Flashlight and my SIR. For about 5 minutes, I waited for the Dark Presence to arrive. That's when the wind picks up and I could feel the darkness flow like a liquid around me, its clear that the Dark Presence was going steady at first.

"Its here." I said.

I opened my eyes and saw numerous green smurf Taken surround me in the clearing, their dark eyes surround me as the shadows try to make their bodies like a mirage. "Oh crap!" I heard a green smurf cried.

"For the motherland!" blurted out a Taken as they all try to swarm me.

At that moment, I pulled out a flare and held it above my head. The bright green flash of the flare eats away at the Taken's shrouds as they were pushed back by the light, I dropped the flare and pulled up my SIR and prepare to shoot the Taken as the darkness was stripped from them. One by one, I put a surgical bullet into each Taken. Their bodies vaporized after they were killed, it happened so fast that the green smurfs don't know what to do.

Once all the Taken were defeated, one of the green smurfs say, "What the hell were they Chernov!"

"Taken," I simply say, "They're Taken."

Just as word spread fast on what they're facing, the Dark Presence began taking over everything in the Green Smurf Colony. Poltergeist sprang out of nowhere and launched themselves at the green smurfs, they shined their flashlights on them and managed to destroy the poltergeist but more larger poltergeist showed up. Smurfvees were commandeered by the Dark Presence and they began to drive themselves at helpless green smurfs like runaway trains, managed to run over some in the process.

I joined up with several green smurfs as we fight the Taken in a dramatic final stand scenario, many green smurfs began to group together in triads when facing either the Taken or Poltergeist. The pure-blooded smurfs tried their best to fight back and managed to find some success with larger light sources, even Papa Smurf seemed to well coordinate his smurfs better this time.

This was all going down just what's on the manuscript page, I felt guilty for making all this happen. Speaking on manuscript pages, I managed to find one sitting on a crate. I picked it up and quickly read it.

_Hefty proved to be the Dark Presence's most valuable asset, with him it can perform simple tasks more easily and more efficiently. Thanks to the chainsaw the possessed smurf acquired, he can perform more kills faster and messier. One green smurf didn't see him coming during the battle at the Green Smurf Village, Hefty came right behind him and sliced the green smurf in half, down the middle._

That's when I heard the chainsaw roared nearby, I heard the guts and blood splatter as it slices up a victim. I stuffed the manuscript page into my jacket and rushed around the corner, just in time to see two halves of a green smurf topple over like a banana peel. There stood Hefty, shrouded in the thickest darkness armor I've ever seen as he weld the chainsaw like Leatherface in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. "Work hard, play hard!" said Hefty both in his regular and demonic voice.

I shined my flashlight at Hefty, proceeding to strip away his dark shroud. Hefty marches towards me with an arm over his eyes, the flashlight wasn't enough to take him down. "I work out nearly 24/7," he blabbered, "Every day and... every night, keeping myself... physically fit! I have the best... muscles in the Smurf Village, I can take... everybody on... without much EFFORT! A healthy diet of... fruits and vegetables aren't enough to keep me going, I often have to... resort to protein shakes before a... workout!"

More green smurfs joined in and shined their flashlights at Hefty, which did nothing to slow him down. Finally he went into a beserker rage and roared at the top of his lungs, right before he charges straight at me once again. I managed to dodge Hefty but he kept on going, slamming into an unsuspecting green smurf and knocked him on his rear. Just before Hefty was able to plunge the chainsaw into the green smurf's stomach, I shined my flashlight at his face again and managed to backed him off.

As he stumbled backwards, the green smurfs tried to shoot the chainsaw out of his hands. It did them no good, as the dark shroud protecting Hefty also protects the chainsaw from physical harm. A real strain on our brains, so we're moving in with the big flashlights.

I ran out of the area as Hefty chases me, ignoring the green smurfs who were attacking him. He followed me as I rushed towards the searchlight, which was busy taking out numerous Taken at the moment. Luckily the green smurf manning it managed to spot me in time and shined the searchlight at Hefty, his dark shroud proved no match for the searchlight's bright rays. A flash signaled the shroud was removed, but power to the searchlight was suddenly stopped.

With the shroud removed, I pumped Hefty full of lead. Despite the rounds I was putting into him, he was still trying to push on after me. After a few more rounds, Hefty's body was engulfed in static as he was blasted back, then he vanished into thin air along with his chainsaw. With Hefty defeated, we'll might stand a fighting chance. I soon realize I was wrong.

A loud roar echoed throughout the Colony, indicated that I had pissed off the Dark Presence even more. The Taken became more aggressive in their attacks and were becoming more numerous, these obese green smurfs Taken wielding double-headed logger ax suddenly appeared. They are a real pain to kill due to their mass and the thicker shroud covering them, only a fool would think they are slow.

I managed to piss off one of them and it roared, charged at me like Hefty earlier and nearly ran me over. I managed to hold them off with my flashlight but they seemed to fight my way towards me anyway. I managed to quickly kill them as several green smurfs provided reinforcements, just in time to fight about a few more poltergeist. One poltergeist happened to be a smurfvee, it sped towards me in an effort to hit me. I dodged out of the way just in time before I trained my flashlight onto its shadow-covered chassis.

The poltergeist backed up and tried to turn around, but I remain right onto its side. It doesn't seem to be that intelligent, but common sense quickly came in and the smurfvee floored it, putting a 2 meter distance from me and it before making a sharp U-Turn to barrel towards me again. Again, I successfully dodged the smurfvee but a green smurf was hit in the process, killed instantly.

I shined my flashlight on it once more and it explodes into static before vaporizing, spectacular sight that was.

Now one more poltergeist, a massive Reznov tank. I saw it came around a small hill, completely covered in darkness. The main gun was trained at me, and it fired. I scrambled out of the way just as an explosion ripped into the earth like a propane. I was lying on my belly as I looked back to where I once stood, I saw a deep crater that appears very intimidating.

I heard the poltergeist groan, the groan sounded like the combination of a banshee's wail and creaking metal. The turret was twitching violently, it was charging up for another round. Unfortunately, all that twitching ruins the accuracy of the 7 mm gun, causing it to fire the projectile away from its target. I shined my flashlight on the tank as several other green smurfs joined in, the searchlight abruptly came back on and shined its powerful beam on the tank. It was giving off static as it tries to resist the brightness of the lights, in agony it fired another round which struck the searchlight, darkening its light forever.

It was too late for the poltergeist, static engulfs the tank and its engine dies just as it vaporize into nothingness. I listened for more of the approaching Taken, I heard only faint gunshots from my fellow comrades. Activity nearby seemed to calm down, I think the Dark Presence had called it a night finally. At first, I thought the fight was over, so I made my way back to the Command Center to regroup with Papa Smurf.

Along the way, I spot a manuscript page pinned to a tree with a nail. I removed it from the trunk and read the page:

_Clumsy's eyes were wide with terror as the ax came plunging down into his stomach, the sight of the wound was more gruesome than the sensation. He felt his mouth filling with blood as he stares into the Taken's dark red eyes. The possessed Lumberjack Smurf walks away and climbed up a nearby hill, ready to ambush Clumsy's rescuers if they come._

Clumsy is Brainy's friend, maybe his only friend. Me and Brainy are close, this would be devastating if Clumsy were to die. I put my SIR rifle up and rushed back to the Command Center as fast as I can, with manuscript page in hand. When I arrived, I saw Papa Smurf sitting at the table with his hands in his hair, the old smurf looked pretty stressed. Rachael sat nearby reading a book as Rick was still busy on the radio chatting away. "It isn't your fault Papa Smurf," said Grandpa Smurf, "You shouldn't blame yourself for losing them."

More of his smurfs are lost, oh crap. It wasn't a surprise, they can't handle the nightmares they were facing. Maybe I could give him hope by saving one, Clumsy was specified as injured but not killed. "Papa Smurf," I called to him, "Papa Smurf, Clumsy is in danger!"

He looked up and shot a frustrated look at me, "What now?" he asked.

I showed him the manuscript page, after he read it he seemed more stressed, "Great smurfs!" he cursed, "It doesn't seem to end, does it?"

"Where is he?" asked Rick who was just taking notice.

"Probably a small clearing," I explained, "Too small to move around in yet has a hill next to it, I think there's a clearing nearby sort of speak."

"Then what are we waiting for?" asked Papa Smurf, "Let's save his tail!"

Me, Papa Smurf, and Grandpa Smurf ran out of the Command Center and I lead them to the nearest clearing close to here, sure enough we began to hear Clumsy's recognizable screams. "No! No!" he cried, "I'm sorry! No! AHHHH!"

I heard a squishy wet thud and Clumsy yelped, when we arrived we saw Clumsy lying on his back in a pool of his own blood. The ax that caused the wounds was imbedded into his stomach, it was a gruesome sight. "Oh Clumsy." said Papa Smurf, "No Clumsy."

Clumsy coughed out some blood as we approach, Brainy shot out of nowhere and dropped to his knees beside him. "Oh no Clumsy," he cried, "What happened?"

"Lumberjack," he said, "It wasn't Lumberjack anymore."

I grabbed the ax's handle and removed its head out of Clumsy's stomach, he yelped as I dropped the ax onto the ground. "Let's get you outta here," I said, "We lost enough smurfs already."

Suddenly we heard a chainsaw roared its engine, awfully close to our ears. "TIMBER!" I heard a Taken yell as an enormous tree with a meter thick trunk was leaning over us. We manage to grab Clumsy's legs and pulled him to safety before the tree landed toppled over, hitting the ground with a roaring thud that shook the earth. We looked towards the nearby hill and saw Lumberjack Smurf wielding a chainsaw, his eyes dark as night.

"Logging is a dangerous occupation!" he says as he jumped down the hill, ready to come at us with his chainsaw.

"And now you're firewood!" I say as I pulled out a flare gun and pointed at his face.

I fired the flare gun and time seemed to slow when it shoots towards Lumberjack Smurf, the flare went off in his face and the Taken vaporized in the bright flash of green light. What a beautiful light show that was, it was so bright that I now think twice before using a flare gun in point-blank range. At least the fight was now over for the night, time to tend to the wounded since Clumsy needs medical attention.

"Come on Clumsy," said Brainy as he hoisted Clumsy onto his back, "I'll get you help, just smurf on there."

"Look on the bright side Brainy," he said as he pointed to the down tree that nearly killed him, "We have free firewood here."

**TO BE CONTINUED...**


	9. Ch 9: The Missing Week

**Disclaimer: I do not own any characters that were created by someone else**

**Claimer: Go to my profile to view my characters**

We managed to get Clumsy the treatment he needs for his wounds, the treatment the green smurf surgeons have helped clean up the wound and the lacerations in Clumsy's intestines and abdominal wall. The real concern at the moment was an impending Salmonella infection due to the fecal matter making contact with his internal organs, but time will tell if he's truly sick. Right now, he was glad he came out of the situation alive.

After checking the green smurf villages via radio to see if the Taken were still attacking, they all replied that the attack there was little and was taken care of. This fact bolsters my belief that the Dark Presence was coming after me and nobody else, The Taken heavily attacked GSV 1 because it was protecting me, in a sense the village was an obstacle.

I just want to rest for the night, just as I was heading to the Command Center I saw a group of green smurfs having a good time around a camp fire, with a bright LED lightbulb shining over the area. Both the green smurfs and smurfettes were drinking moonshine, a popular alcoholic beverage in the Colony, Clumsy and Brainy happened to be seated with them. I can clearly see the bandages wrapped around Clumsy's torso, the pain must be unbearable for him.

The green smurfs were telling stories on their misfortunes of war. They talked about how they lost body parts and somehow they grew back or their friends who lost body parts and somehow they grew back, all seemed to disturb both Clumsy and Brainy a little bit. Papa Smurf was there, staring into the fire, Grandpa Smurf was also sitting with him but seemed to be minding his own business.

I approached the campfire and sat down beside him, he didn't seem to notice me right away until some green smurfs started looking at me. "This is smurfing me," said Papa Smurf, "I don't know whose fault is it, Gargamel, you, or the entity you've created."

"All three?" I answered.

"Plausible," said Papa Smurf, "Ever since we've met, I've been trying to understand you. Your nature and behavior is both vague and unpredictable, often showing smurfiness on occasion. I don't know what your world was like to you, now I know."

"I did say it takes time will tell for you to understand me." I said.

Papa Smurf looked at me with the, no duh, expression, "You did didn't you? I now understand why you don't want to live with your own smurfs."

"Is it because of their behavior or what they're doing before us?"

"That's part of it, but its something else. You hold a lot of power, more power than you realize. I've never seen such power in a hundred years, the fact that your writing can smurf to reality is one thing, but what just happened to you is another. So Chernov, what really happened to you during that missing week?"

"I don't really know," I replied as I touched the wound on my temple, it was still just as bad as before, "I was so angry that I just want to isolate myself from the world, just shut down, drive myself into this void free of frustration and sorrow. Maybe this is how the Dark Presence formed, with the help of Gargamel's spell."

"Chernov," said a green smurf at the other side of the fire, "Put away your troubles for the night and come have a drink."

I just wanted to wipe the smug off of his face, but he's right, I must have a break. "Oh that's the most," I began to say before I gave in, "Oh what the hell."

We brought out several kegs of moonshine as Rachael came by to join the fun, she even brought a really big keg. How she got this was unknown, but nobody cared at the moment. I had a few too many and became intoxicated, Papa Smurf and Grandpa Smurf ended up having some moonshine as well as share some personal stories of their lives. For me, I never had a smirk on my face in weeks till that night.

In a drunken stupor, I brag about being a writer as I hold the wooden mug of moonshine in my hand, everybody just paid attention to me as I bragged. "Now I'm a writer you see," I blurted out, "I would write a hundred books in a year, because I'm a writer and that's what I do."

"I thought you were a scientist." asked Rachael, also drunk.

"I am too," I replied, "But I usually write about my work, describing in full detail how I f#ck up on occasion and how I get a chemical shower. I lost count on how many times I jumped into the lake next to my house, by the way what's the secret ingredient of this moonshine by the way because I never felt so clear in my entire life."

"Unfiltered water straight from a lake on top of an active volcano," said a green smurfette, "Don't worry, its completely safe. We had 10 smurfs live off the stuff for 30 days just to make sure."

"30 days?" I asked, "How about 300 days, make their breaths and farts smell like Sulfur. Blame Mother Nature my siblings!"

Everybody laughed hard, but suddenly I went south and got all depressed, "Its all my fault," I said as I held my head low, "I caused all this, I had all those innocent smurfs killed because of me, my dad will kill me for this."

"Chernov," said a drunken Papa Smurf, "Its alright, its not entirely your fault. I understand that this is a cruel unsmurfy world and everybody dies, I'll forgive you for what has happened."

I looked at him in disbelief, "You wouldn't say that if your sober!" I exclaimed.

"Oh really," bluffed Papa Smurf, "You just did."

"No," I contradicted, "Your breath smells like alcohol from all that moonshine you drank, damn it I can't believe you guys got me into this buzz in the first place."

"Oh come on Chernov," giggled Rachael as she placed her arm over my shoulders, "You didn't drank that much."

"You have to drink more in order to get drunk," I noted, "Its because your fat, and everyone knows that fat creatures require more of whatever to get the desire effect."

"You always say that."

"I know, but this here reminds me occasionally."

I grabbed her by the love handle and she laughed, suddenly my mouth meets hers and we kissed for a moment. The sexual contact reminded me of our children, since sex is life of course, so I took the moment and made an announcement. "New rule!" I blurted out as I held my mug in the air, "No beer, wine, spirits, or whipflash for children or I'll shoot you dead!"

"Agreed!" replied all the green smurfs.

"What is whipflash anyway?" asked Papa Smurf.

"I don't know," I answered, "I don't know why I said that anyway."

Everybody laughed again, then I decide to retire for the night. "Screw you guys!" I laughed, "I'm going to bed. Come on Rachael, I want to show you some moves I've learned."

"Ooooooh!" said the green smurfs.

"Shut up!" blurted out Brainy as he points his moonshine mug at the fire.

"Yeah shut up!" blurted out Greedy as he dropped his mug, into the fire.

Me and Rachael got up and made our way to a vacant spiderhole building for us to sleep in, we stumbled a lot and we were singing Korobeiniki, the green smurf theme song. Once we found ourselves a bed to sleep in, we stripped off our clothes and had sex before passing out after orgasm. Once I was asleep, I had a strange drunken dream. I didn't realize it right away, but it was a flashback.

It all came to me now, the missing week was revealing itself. I think I was a out of body observer or viewing everything from my eyes originally, I can't remember what view I was using. I remember I was trying to write a new book after the four books I written became successful, I was brainstorming ideas when I heard some noise outside. It was noon at the time, so there was always bound to have some activity up and about.

I stepped outside and heard the screeching tires of smurfvees, then they drove into the village from the woods and began shooting smurfs and mushroom buildings with green paint balls. They were using the 2 mm machine guns mounted on the roofs of the smurfvees in which a smurf mans the gun from a small hatch, the gun was attached to a rotating ring so it can turn 360 degrees in either direction. I remember the green smurfette arming the 2 mm machine gun, just spraying everybody with green paint balls.

The accuracy of green smurfs are incredible, they almost never missed. They were hitting the helpless smurfs with surgical precision, managed to shoot them in the pressure points such as the stomach and groin. Getting hit by one of those green paint balls feels just as close to getting shot by a real bullet, the faces of many helpless smurfs were spelling it out alright.

Not only the smurfs were getting covered in green paint but their homes as well, the mushroom buildings were being sprayed with paint balls and not a corner of those structures was left unpainted.

Papa Smurf got the worse treatment, when he stepped outside in order to handle the situation every green smurf targeted him. They homed in at him like a missile, unloading paint balls from their guns. The look on Papa Smurf's face was priceless as they shot him in the groin, tail, kidneys, and stomach as he ran for dear life. When he took shelter at his house, all the green smurfs gave his home a coating of green paint. Clip after clip of green paint balls coat the entire building so much that the mushroom house doesn't even look like a mushroom house anymore.

Satisfied, the green smurfs tried to turn their guns on me. But I had my Bean-bag gun out and ready, and prepare shooting at the smurfvee gunners as they come near. I managed to hit them in the groin, since its the only thing unprotected my the 2 mm gunner shield. They tried to shake off the pain but the bean-bags happened to be filled with a special chemical designed to cause massive irritation to green smurfs, but can be deadly to Smurfette and Sassette.

The green smurfs retreated when they realize whose in charge, they drove straight out of the village as I was busy cursing at them on the top of my lungs. Angry for their actions because I'm suppose to be responsible for them, if I caught any one of those green smurfs on foot I would consider strangling them and burn them in my furnace. The last that I remember was me storming back into my house and slamming the door behind me, then I had the windows sealed with automatic aluminum window panels.

Its all I remember, I soon realize that the moonshine had done its job. In the drunken dream, the missing week was about to be revealed.

Everything became gray before it all turned into the inside of Gargamel's hovel. There I saw the wizard himself over his caldron as he prepares a spell, "This is going to be my best plan yet to capture those smurfs!" he talks to his cat, "With this spell, I'll make sure I'll plunge the smurfs into a darkness where they can't see or hear the world again!"

"He he he." Azrael made an evil laugh.

The chemical brew inside the witch's pot appeared to be liquid darkness, or liquid death, due to the fact I saw a bug flew into its steam cloud and instantly die. Its body fell into the cauldron and vaporized into static, "Perfect," said Gargamel, "Now I will say the enchanted words!"

"Oh great spirit of the night, I call upon your might, cast your blight upon these smurfs and purge those rodents from all the light. Dark and cold, rebellious and bold. Cast your blight over the smurfs and fill their hearts with fright!"

Suddenly all the candles in the room went out as a tornado erupted from Gargamel's cauldron, the wizard didn't know what to do when the Dark Presence came out of the pot and went straight up his chimney. The earth shakes as reality tries to make sense of the entity Gargamel had unleashed, "Incredible," exclaimed the wizard, "This spell seemed to be working. Wait, what is this?"

Gargamel approached the spell book in which the spell was based, he had forgotten one important detail about the spell. "In order for the spell to be complete," read Gargamel out loud, "A story must be written for the desired purpose in which you want to use the spell for, as the story that is written will come true and the spell would be complete."

"Meow?" asked Azrael.

"I know Azrael," said Gargamel, "I must write a story. I'll write about me destroying those smurfs, and it will come true! Maybe its too late now, but its worth a try."

Gargamel went to his desk and got out a sheet of paper and a feather with its root dabbed with ink, "Oh how I'm going to write this?" he asked himself.

The scene ends as everything fade back to gray again and changed back to the Smurf Village, it was already night when the Dark Presence came pouring into my locked up home in its thick hazy form. I was still frustrated and angry from that morning, I saw myself sit there on the chair when I met the Dark Presence for the first time. When my eyes met the black cloud of darkness standing before me, all the lights went dark and a green glow shines faintly in the room.

"Who are you?" I asked, "What are you?"

"Are those smurfs a real pain in your ass?" said a calm voice as the dark cloud formed into a smurfette. The smurfette had black short hair and black eyes with red pupils, its skin was pale and very gray, she was wearing a black dress that had a similar design to Smurfette's. Her shoes were also black, look a rather old too. Her pale skin glowed under the green lighting, albeit faintly.

"Hell yeah." I exclaimed, "They're really giving me a real pain!"

"I here to help you," said the smurfette, "Help you get over your anger and frustration, there is only one way to relieve this stress."

"How?" I asked.

"You must let it all out through writing, think of what you want to do to them and put it on paper. It will help you vent your steam building up inside you, I sense that you have such a hard history so this shouldn't be too difficult."

"Writing?" You mean I have to write a book in order to bring peace to myself?"

"Yes."

"What's your name by the way?"

"The Dark Smurfette, but my father calls me the Dark Presence. You see, I can take many forms and I chose this form since it seems appropriate for your species."

"Do you have an actual gender?"

"I'm indeed female if that's what your wondering."

He approached me and stroke her finger across my cheek, I brushed her arm away as a result. "Where do I get started?" I asked politely.

"That typewriter there will help you," said The Dark Smurfette, "Judging by these pile of books that acclaims you the author, I'm sure you'll do fine."

"I write autobiographies," I said, "But I always wanted to write a horror story."

"This is your chance," said The Dark Smurfette, "Think about it, this latest book would be, your best-seller among those half-siblings of yours."

"Your father told you about me," I blurted out, "Did he?"

"Correct," said The Dark Smurfette, "You and him are very close, so close that your mother's soul binds it altogether."

"I think I know what to name this book," I said, trying to change the subject, "Endeavor, because my life is always a struggle."

"Get started Chernov," said The Dark Smurfette, "I'll be your muse through this."

And she was, I watched myself type away on the typewriter, feeding it page after page and filling those pages with words that are sown into the universe. I didn't realize it at the time, all I knew is that I finally have something under my control. At least I thought I did. The Dark Smurfette had me write me and her into the story, starting with me finding myself in my darkened home and in pain and misery.

I pretty much made sure that everyone will suffer to some degree, written the demise of many. My rage drove me on more than The Dark Smurfette, just what she wanted. She was using my emotions to her advantage, making her more stronger in the story. I felt my testosterone levels rise, the room never felt so hot before. I lost track of time, yet I didn't care. I knew I was up to something, and to come to realize it that words do indeed have power.

The Dark Smurfette was using sexual tactics on me, trying to charm me in order to control me. First she wrapped her arms around my torso and hugged me tightly, but I ignored her. Next she tried to rub her body against my elbow, it irritated me greatly. Finally she tried to press her genitals up against me and I stopped writing, at that moment I pound my fist onto the table and turned around to glare into her dark eyes, "Would you stop with the sexual stuff!" I spat, "Its not helping!"

"Alright Chernov," she said calmly, "I'll subside."

Such an inappropriate act set me off, I was resisting her temptations with great will. It surprised her that she was unable to woo me at all. She probably started to think that I was not under her control, she had her suspicion right. I knew deep down that she was using me, and so I was able to craft my own escapes in the story and left many doors for more attempts on defeating the Dark Presence if I should fail. She didn't catch it until I wrote the ending at the end of the week, heck she wasn't even with me in the daytime.

I ended the story in a poem, I couldn't remember what it was. It ensures a dramatic ending after the Dark Presence's defeat, I written it just in time when she showed up again. She saw me sat in the chair, mediating, with a stack of manuscript pages next to the typewriter. "Your father is Gargamel," I said as I stair at the typewriter, "He created you to destroy the smurfs, you used me to fulfill that deed. I made sure that the end of the story, I'll have your power and you'll shall no longer exist."

"YOU FOOL!" she screamed.

In a flash, she whacked me in the temple hard, knocking me out cold. As I fell out of my chair and onto the floor in an unconscious heap, she made a mad grab for the manuscript pages. At the moment she touched them, they all burst into static and vanished. "NO!" she cried as she turns back into her original dark cloud form before disappearing into the night, and then the story began shortly after.

**TO BE CONTINUED...**


	10. Ch 10: Crash Landed

**Disclaimer: I do not own any characters that were created by someone else**

**Claimer: Go to my profile to view my characters**

When I awoke from that dream, it was bright and sunny outside. I found myself lying on the floor of the spider hole as Rachael sleeps in the cot, what a night I slept through. I got dressed by into my clothes and stepped outside to find the Colony in its usual activity, I went back to the Command Center to find Rick still glued to his radio. Papa Smurf lay on the floor next to Grandpa Smurf, sleeping off that hard night.

"Morning." I said.

"Morning Chernov." said Rick, not even looking at me.

Papa Smurf stirred and woke up, he groans as he sits upright. "What happened?" he asked.

"You got drunk," I replied, "You should have heard the things that came out your mouth."

"What are we supposed to do now Chernov?" he asked, pressing his hands against his temples.

"Gargamel," I replied, "We gotta find Gargamel."

Papa Smurf snapped out of his delirium and shot his attention at me, "What does he have that we need?" he asked.

"He made the Dark Presence," I said, "The moonshine revealed the missing week to me, Gargamel cast a spell that brought the Dark Presence to being. The entity wants to be free, and Gargamel has no control of the situation. If we can find him, we'll might be able to reverse the spell. But first, we're going to need to know what spell he actually cast."

"We're going now?" asked Papa Smurf.

"Yes," I said, "We gotta get to Gargamel's hovel before dark, or things will be much harder for us."

"I can take you to Gargamel's hovel," said Rick, "We have Vertibirds of course."

"Oh course," I said sarcastically, "How could I ever forget about them?"

Papa Smurf went out and selected some smurfs to take with us, he selected Brainy, Smurfette, Handy, and Tracker for the journey as me and Rick commandeered a vertibird. Since we have no pilot to drive it, Rick volunteered to be in the driver's seat.

I said my goodbyes to Rachael just as she was about to get up, she seemed to be more preoccupied to sleeping than a final goodbye but she managed to say goodbye. With that all done, I regrouped with Papa Smurf at the Green Smurf Colony Airport where Rick was warming up the vertibird. "How is everyone this morning?" I asked.

"Good." said Smurfette.

"Brainy?" I asked, "How's Clumsy?"

"He's doing fine," said Brainy, "Has an unsmurfy headache though."

"How do you make these vertibirds?" asked Handy as we stepped aboard.

"Factories," I replied, "Enough said."

We got on board and everyone put on their seatbelts, I sat next to Rick as he starts up the vertibird. "There's a storm coming in," he said, "We should do this fast, I miss being at my radio though."

"There's one in this vertibird." I replied.

"Well its good enough." he said.

Rick managed to get the vertibird airborne, once we managed to get above the treeline we head west. I can see the storm rolling in from the north, the clouds look dark and I can see lightning flashing from it. Rick's right, we best hurry and get this done right away.

We flew over the forest with maximum speed, it took longer to reach Gargamel's hovel than to reach the Smurf Village. After crossing 10 kilometers in 30 minutes, I had Rick do a quick flyby over the Smurf Village and he agreed to do so. We flew over the village and saw it was trashed but the buildings weren't damaged in anyway. "Some critters must had smurfed themselves a meal." said Papa Smurf.

I tried to relax in my seat, relieved there's a home to go back to once this all ends. Something caught my eye underneath the dashboard of the vertibird, I grabbed it and pulled it out of the dashboard to see what it was. It was another manuscript page, how in the world did it get there? I quickly read whats on the page, just as the nearby storm was blocking out the sun:

_The possessed Feathers came flying in with a possessed Flying Smurf on his back, they leave a trail of shadows in their path as they took down the vertibird. It went down in a thud, remarkably no one was hurt. Chernov tuck the manuscript page into his jacket and coughed, "Is everyone alright?"_

_Before anyone can answer, the ground gave way and the earth sucks the wreckage into an underground mine. After descending 7 meters, the vertibird crashed and partially broke apart. "I'm fine." said Smurfette weakly._

"What is that?" cried Rick as I look up, there I saw what appeared to be a bird with shadows clinging to it. There appears to be a smurf riding it, also clinging with shadows. It too me awhile to realize the storm had blocked out the sun and it was dark enough for the Dark Presence to act, my luck had turn against me.

"Feathers!" I cried, "Take cover!"

Rick tried to shoot down Feathers, but the dark shroud protecting the crane stopped the bullets from harming the bird. Feathers charged over us and took out one of the two propellers, and then the dashboard rang with alarms as we plunge back to earth. "Hang on to your undergarments!" I cried, clutching the manuscript page in my hand.

We hit the ground hard, it was a mere dead drop. Stunned by the insersia and coughing from the dust flung into the air, I tuck the manuscript page into my jacket, "Is everyone okay?" I asked.

Before anyone answer, the ground gave way and everything became pitch black. Everybody screams as we plunged deep into the earth, I hang on for dear life. We finally came to a stop at the bottom, I felt the vertibird itself broke apart upon the second impact. "I'm fine." uttered Smurfette once everything settled.

"Oh smurf!" cried Brainy, "We're trapped! We're trapped! Um... not that I'm scared smurfless or anything."

I took off my seatbelt and kicked the windsheld, it popped off without much effort. I helped Rick out of the vertibird as everyone else managed to find their way out. "Where are we?" asked Papa Smurf.

"It must be a green smurf mine." I responded.

I looked over across the mine and saw a crate that says Fe on it, then I examined the walls and note its smell. "Hematite," I replied as I pressed a hand against the wall, "This is Hematite."

"What?" asked Smurfette.

"Iron ore," I translated, "We're in an Iron mine, we mine the iron to form the backbone of green smurf infrastructure and machinery."

"Is this mine active?" asked Handy.

"Yes," Rick replied, "But where are all the miners?"

"Physical labor!" I heard the demonic echo of a Taken down the mine tunnel, "Let's take a break."

Rick quickly jumped back into the vertibird and check the controls, "Powers still on!" he said, "Allow me."

Just as I could manage to see the Taken appear out of the darkness, Rick turned on the vertibird's searchlight. The bright beam of light shot across the tunnel, exposing 3 possessed green smurf miners wielding pickaxes. They were wearing yellow hardhats with a head lamp on them, which is dead, and they were also wearing orange vests. They tried to shield their eyes as the light quickly strips the darkness protecting them off their bodies, all three Taken burst into static and vanished one by one soon afterwords.

"Smart move," I comment, "But we can't take the searchlight with us, we're going to need a weapon in order to get out of this mine."

"Here," said Rick as he tossed some flashlights out the window, "These should help."

I managed to catch one of them as everyone else grabbed a flashlight, "We don't have guns here." said Rick.

"I always carry one," I replied as I pulled out my 1 mm pistol, "Let's go."

**TO BE CONTINUED...**


	11. Ch 11: The Iron Mine

**Disclaimer: I do not own any characters that were created by someone else**

**Claimer: Go to my profile to view my characters**

We descend deep into the mine as Smurfette keeps complaining about the filth of the mine, indeed there was trash everywhere and rotting food. Green smurfs aren't one of your hygienic creatures, what a mess they leave behind. As we went down the tunnel, we noticed there were some electric lamps still working and still glowing. Just enough to see but not enough to repel the Dark Presence, and so when we stumble into a large area several Taken burst through a boarded up tunnel.

"Don't forget your lunch box!" one of them blurted out.

"Okay guys!" I said, "Keep your flashlights trained on them!"

Everyone pointed their flashlights at the Taken and proceed to strip off their protective darkness, this helped repel the Taken miners and I trained my flashlight straight at one of them. Flashes signaled the downing of their darkness armor and I proceed to gun them down, static light started to flare as I kill them one by one. When the coast was clear, I discovered several flares near a crate along with a manuscript page.

"Another page!" I announced as I rushed to it, "And some flares."

"What's on the page?" asked Brainy.

"Hold on," I said as I grabbed the flares and handed them to Handy, "Let's see what's in this crate."

I managed to get the crate open with a good solid kick, and I took a look inside. "Flash-bang grenades," I said, "This will help us quite well."

I handed the flash-bang grenades to the others and read the manuscript page out loud:

_Rachael tried hard to contact the vertibird, but no suffice. She began to worry what has happened to Chernov and her mom. For all Rachael knew, they were heading to Gargamel's hovel. Grandpa Smurf sighs and shifts his position in the chair, "I'm sure they're alright," he said, "You should wait, the storm outside seems unsmurfy for travel."_

_But she didn't listen, Chernov always responds when he has a working radio at hand. She packed her backpack and say goodbye to her children before taking the underground train to the Smurf Village, even though Gargamel is an antagonist to the smurfs he is still family to the green smurfs and she knows Gargamel is also in danger as well. If she hurries, she could make it to the hovel before dark._

I tuck the page into my jacket, "Crap," I cursed, "Now we know who to expect when we arrived at Gargamel's hovel."

"You sure she could make it?" asked Smurfette.

"Green smurfs travel faster when alone," said Chernov, "We must hurry and meet up with her, who knows what the Dark Presence is capable of."

The green smurfs made sure that in case of an emergency, there are signs pointing the way out. Glow in the dark exit signs with arrows pointing towards the entrance, or an emergency exit shaft, were easily revealed by our flashlights. All we have to do is follow where they're pointing, and we'll be able to find a way to the surface.

As we walked through the tunnel, we could sense movement coming from all directions. "The Taken must have us surrounded," said Rick, "Chernov, can you please tell me we're not screwed."

"Maybe one of us," I replied, "There's no way to tell without a-"

I cut my sentence off when I spot another manuscript page pinned to one of the mine's support beams, "Page." I finished as I removed the page from its nail and read it out loud.

_Gargamel was busy making dinner as the storm kept Azrael hiding underneath some furniture, "Get over it you lousy cat!" snorted the wizard as Azrael sticks his head out, "Think about it, the Dark Presence would surely make good riddance of those smurfs. Soon, they would be destroyed and we'll achieve victory."_

_Azrael let out a snicker, a sudden lighting flash however made the cat scramble back into its hiding place. Gargamel groaned and returned to making dinner, not noticing Rachael hide inside the coverts. Without warning, all the candles went out and Gargamel was left in the dark. Despite faint light coming in through the windows, he still search for the lighter. That's when he sensed someone or something behind him, when he turned around he saw the Dark Presence standing over him in a pitch black cloud. Before he could say anything, the Dark Presence attacked him._

"That's not smurfy," said Brainy, "Not smurfy at all."

"There's gotta be an emergency exit shaft somewhere." I said as I tuck the page into my jacket, "I prefer getting caught my the Dark Presence in the forest and not in a Iron mine."

"I think we're near one," said Papa Smurf as he pointed his flashlight at a sign that says, Emergency Exit, "Just up here. Wait a minute."

"What Papa Smurf?" I asked.

"I think Miner Smurf often smurfs here with the green smurfs," said Papa Smurf, "He told me stories on how friendly the miners are and how efficiently they mine the ore, I asked what mine he was working in and he said he works in an Iron Mine. Could it be this Iron mine?"

"Well," said Rick, "This is the only mine closest to the Smurf Village."

"In fact I don't recall seeing him when we evacuated the Smurf Village," I noted, "Has anyone seen him."

"No," replied all the smurfs in unison.

"No, I haven't seen him." said Handy.

"Me neither." said Tracker.

"Lets not waste time," I said, "If Miner is now a Taken, you know what will happen."

We continue down the tunnel without a problem, just as we reached another open area we managed to find a ladder leading out of the mine. I could see light coming out of its shaft, its the way out. "Oh that's lovely." said Rick.

But before we were able to use it, we heard nearby Taken approach. "Mining can be... a hazardous... profession!" I heard the voice of a Taken say, "Useful minerals are... hard to smurf by!"

"Aw crap." I muttered.

Miner Smurf came busting through a boarded up tunnel, the shadows clung to his body like mad. The candle on his hat was no longer lit and his eyes were very dark, more Taken began to out of the darkness and were backing him up. "Ambush!" I cried, "Defend yourselves!"

Miner was pretty fast as he zips around like lightning, looks like he's another runner. The smurfs tried to get a light on him but he moves too damn fast, so I pulled out a flash-bang grenade, pulled the pin, and tossed it into the group of Taken. The grenade went off, killing the Taken nearby instantly. As their bodies disappear, I pulled out a flare and lit it and I managed to pin Miner down.

"Safety is required!" he blurted out with a partial demonic voice as he tries to back away from the light, "To smurf precious metals! One false move, and the whole cave smurfs in on you!"

His darkness armor flashes off and I proceed to gun him down, oddly enough when he lost his protective armor he stopped running around altogether. Miner let out a roar and charges at me like a bull, I managed to dodge him in time and fired my gun at him. His grunts were like a monster, I managed to kill him just before he tries to attack me again.

Miner's body vanished in static light, I turned towards the group of smurfs who seemed to scared to do anything. "Well," I said, "Let's get a move on."

**TO BE CONTINUED...**


	12. Ch 12: Reality & Imagination

**Disclaimer: I do not own any characters that were created by someone else**

**Claimer: Go to my profile to view my characters**

"Hey look!" cried Rick as he rushed over to a metal cabinet, "A gun cabinet."

When he opened it, 8 SIRs and boxes of ammunition were inside. Rick grabbed them and handed each a smurf one, he was kind enough to hand me the SIR shotgun mod. "Thanks," I said as I took the gun, "With Feathers ruling the skies, a shotgun would be useful. I'll shoot him down, this time on purpose."

I was the first to climb up the ladder as everyone followed behind me, I think we were down there for about an hour or two. So when I poke my head out of the ground, I saw that the storm has engulfed the sky and its quite dark. The sky was like gray, so the sun was probably still out for the moment. If we hurry, we'll might be able to meet up with Rachael and maybe encounter a defeated Gargamel in time.

I got out of the hole and helped the others climb up, once we're all out of the mine we tried to get our bearings. "Recalling from the satellite photos," said Rick, "I think we're not that far from Gargamel's hovel."

"The smurfs pretty much been there a gazillion times," I said bluntly, "Of course we're near Gargamel's hovel, since this mine is near the Smurf Village and... wait a minute."

I turned to Papa Smurf and asked, "How many smurfs did you loose exactly?"

"I think I lost about 20 or 30," said Papa Smurf, "Why?"

The wind began to pick up and the shadows began to move, "Let's go," I said, "Hurry."

We rushed out of the area and ran through the forest, the shadows became thicker as the wind blow harder. We ran until the Taken started appearing out of the darkness, and they were actually the familiar light blue smurfs I used to live with. "Don't be a stray," I heard one of the Taken say in the demonic voice, "Come out and play."

There was only 5 of them, yet the smurfs wanted to run. They shined their flashlights at the Taken, stripped of their darkness, and fired their guns at them as the Taken throws wrenches and hunting knives at them. We took them out quite easily, but its only going to get tougher.

Continuing down the path, we felt the earth shake as we heard a tree toppled over nearby, followed by a loud roar. "The Dark Presence is heading to the same direction as we," said Papa Smurf, "We must get to Gargamel first!"

We pushed on through the forest, inanimate objects sprang to life and shot into the air, twitching violently. Stick and stone poltergeist hurled themselves straight at us, we managed to take some of them out with a flash-bang grenade and finished off the rest with our flashlights and guns. The smurfs were getting the hang of it when it comes to advanced weaponry, or so I thought.

I spotted another page over at the trunk of a tree, I rushed up to it, grabbed it, and continued on as I read it out loud:

_The hovel was trashed, Gargamel can't believe that another of one of his creations turned against him. Having been attacked by the Dark Presence, he sat there up against the wall as he wonder what to do next. He called for Azrael, the cat never respond. Too weak and injured, he bleeds all over the cobblestone floor as he lie helpless. Suddenly he heard the door cracked open, was it the Dark Presence returning to finished the job?_

"_Who's there!" he cried out._

_He was answered by a pinging bright light to the face._

Tucking the page into my jacket, I continued on with the smurfs. As we were about to run underneath a rotting log resting on top of a stone, 7 more of the light blue smurf Taken appeared. "Smurf all day long." one of them blurted out as the others said unintelligible gibberish.

Fighting through this was a little bit trickier, judging by the fact that an obese green smurf Taken was on the scene. To make it easier, I focus of the big fellow first. I kept my flashlight trained on him as the other smurfs attack their former, the sympathy they hold was enormous but Rick doesn't have any left. "I'll tear you limb from limb!" he says as he temporary went trigger happy, almost hitting me in the process.

"Watch your fire!" I called out as I tossed a flash-bang grenade at a small group of Taken, it exploded and killed them instantly.

"Either is it me or the sky seems to be getting darker?" asked Papa Smurf.

I looked up to the heavens and saw how dark it was, it was indeed darker than before. As we finished off the last of the Taken, we continued on and managed to find another manuscript page in the bushes. I grabbed it and read that one out loud as well:

_The Dark Presence now has Chernov within reach, all it has to do is to trap him in an enclosed space. Chernov proved resilient though, able to spot a potential one and managed to dodge it. If Chernov reaches the hovel and finds the spell that could end the Dark Presence's cataclysm, then the final page of the story will reveal itself. _

_To prevent this, the Dark Presence has mustered up all the Taken it could managed to find and have them sit and wait. When Chernov and his friends are near, the Taken will ambush them._

"Look out!" cried Smurfette.

I ducked and saw a wrench fly past my head, I turned around and saw green smurf Taken started to come after us from behind, in massive numbers. "There's no way we can take them all," I said, "Run!"

We all ran as the Taken gave chase, yelling gibberish along the way. Out-running them will be impossible, as Taken never tire. But I did see potential refuge, an abandoned green smurf outpost.

When we ran into the camp, we discovered that it was suppose to be temporary. There were many smurfvees and makeshift tents pitched up as glass bottles and empty ammunition casings litter the area, with sheer luck we discover a generator hooked up to an LED outdoor lamp. I rushed over to the generator and tried to start it up, "Hurry Chernov!" cried Smurfette, "They're coming!"

The Taken were coming closer, I pulled on the ignition cord as hard as I can about a few more times. The damn thing just won't start, but just when the Taken draws near I managed to start up the generator and it roared to life. The LED light bulb above us flickered to life, bathing us in its bright white glow. We watched as the Taken fades back into the shadows, and then there was nothing amidst the darkness beyond.

"What a relief," said Brainy as he slumped his rear onto the ground, "Can we rest Chernov?"

"Yeah," I said, "For 10 minutes."

"10 minutes?" asked Rick, "I thought we're in a hurry."

"The story can wait," said Chernov, "I've ensured the time."

"The manuscript," he said, "Its all in the manuscript?"

"More like a loophole."

"You've created loopholes?"

"Calm down Rick, can you just shut up for once?"

"Um... yeah."

We sat there underneath the bright LED light, listening to the generator hum. The storm above us shows no sign of letting up, its probably going to pass tomorrow. "I'm scared Papa Smurf," said Smurfette as she hugged Papa Smurf, "I wanna go home!"

"There there Smurfette," said Papa Smurf as she patted her on the back, "Everything is going to be alright."

"I miss Hefty," said Handy, "He was my best friend."

"I miss him too," said Brainy, "I miss him a lot."

"You know," I said, "I realized one thing, about the darkness."

"What's that?" asked everysmurf.

"The Dark Presence chose me to write the story," I explained, "Because my nature is very similar to it, controlling, dark, stubborn. The moment where the green smurfs paint-balled the Smurf Village made me so mad that I just wanted to murder them all. The Dark Presence sensed this and made it a reality, probably it did put a shroud over my head and made me write the story. I wrote it mostly on my own terms since she tricked me into writing the story, saying that it would help me. Does it look like its helping me?"

"No." said Rick.

"Exactly," I said, "The witch lied, I knew that deep down before hand. The moonshine also helped unearth something that could put the Dark Presence in its place, I've written its destruction."

That's when I pulled out a manuscript page out of my sleeve, unfolded it, and read it out loud:

_After a vicious battle, Chernov destroys the Book of Darkness. In turn, he harnessed the Dark Presence's power as the entity itself cease to exist. The power Chernov has given will not create an army of Taken, but instead give him full power of shaping the universe. The ability to write a story and have it come true, but with a catch: There are no free rides with this power. _

_Once the scene became calm, the final page of the story flashed into existence right before the smurfs. The very last page that will end the nightmare once and for all._

I tuck the page back into my jacket, "What was I thinking," I asked myself, "I realized that all this power makes life dull, no longer challenging. I don't want to shape the universe, I just want to study it. My mom will not be proud if she's still alive, my dad would eventually expect this sooner or later. I know what I have to do, I must restore order from chaos. Once the Laws of Physics return back into their rightful place, the Dark Presence shall cease to exist."

"You sure you can pull it off?" asked Brainy.

"I've written it into the story, its a 100 percent probability." I replied, "Once we're done with destroying the spell, I'm going to go back home and write an epilogue to the story. I'll bring back everybody the Dark Presence has claimed, and made sure that this had never happened."

"You're going to turn back time?" asked Papa Smurf.

"Yes," I said, "Me, you, and every being involved in the story will or will not remember what has happened. Father Time will probably have my ass for it, since I finally broke the laws. My consequences will also be written, just to bring peace to him."

"He never actually smurfed you a lecture or anything in the past," said Papa Smurf, "Nor did you even met him face to face."

"I'll change all that," I said, "I'll make sure we do indeed meet him for the first times of our adventurous lives."

Suddenly, the lightbulb exploded, and the area around us went dark.

**TO BE CONTINUED...**


	13. Ch 13: Gargamel's Hovel

**Disclaimer: I do not own any characters that were created by someone else**

**Claimer: Go to my profile to view my characters**

"Okay," I said, "Let's move."

We got up and continued on our way to Gargamel's hovel, the winds around us began to pick up once more as the shadows move with the wind. "Come to think of it," I said, "The abandoned outpost here might belong to the green smurfs who pranked us."

As green smurf Taken appeared out of the shadows, we fired flare guns at them, lighting the whole place up like fireworks. The Taken vaporize like sparks of electricity, as their bodies vanished we head straight towards Gargamel's hovel.

It wasn't that far now, I could see it amidst the barren land surrounding the structure. As we approach it, we noticed dark clouds surrounding the hovel and were penetrating it through the cracks and windows. "What the!" me and the smurfs heard Gargamel's voice, "No! I created you! NO! AHH!"

The Dark Presence released its wrath on the wizard as the sound of destruction simmers from inside, the cloud was quick to retreat as it detaches itself from the hovel and shot across the night sky to the far horizon. I spot a manuscript page next to the front door as we approach it, I grabbed the page and read it out loud:

_The Dark Presence soon discovers Chernov's greatest loophole, it can either live or die at the end of the story. Despite the contrary, the Dark Presence will once again rise up and try to attack Chernov a second time, if it lives the final night of the story. The odds seemed mixed and confuse, there's no telling if the Dark Presence's destruction will do any good. It make sense that whoever cast the dark spell again, the Dark Presence will once again roam the Earth._

I stuffed the page into my jacket before proceeding into Gargamel's hovel, everysmurf muster up all their strength and we managed to push the door open. "Who's there!" cried Gargamel weakly.

I shined my flashlight across the room and saw Gargamel severely wounded, he lay in a pool of his own blood as he struggle to breathe. Everything in his hovel was thrashed, no sign of Azrael anywhere. I approach my grandfather as he tries to speak, "Why do all my plans backfire?" he asked himself.

"Oh damn." I comment as I shined the flashlight at the blood puddle.

"We'll get you help Gargamel," said Papa Smurf, "Don't worry, we'll-"

"There's nothing we could do for him Paps," I said as I grabbed the old smurf's shoulder, "He's near death, even if we're human size there's simply no hope left."

I walked up to Gargamel and climbed up his bloody robe and onto his chest, his eyes meet mine, I can see the hate in them, "Grandfather," I asked, "Where's the Book Of Darkness?"

"So you know I caused all this," he grinned, "You figure things out so easily, how could a cute little creature be so stubborn?"

"If that cute little creature contains your blood." I replied.

"Very well," he said, "The book is over at the podium, and could you please re-light the candles?"

Gargamel coughs out blood as I jumped off of him and rushed over the the podium, the podium was knocked over during the attack and the book lay closed on the floor. I managed to pull the book open as Rick tried to light some of the candles, Smurfette and Papa Smurf looked over my shoulder as I managed to find the spell that brought the Dark Presence into being.

"God o' mighty," I said as I skim through the book, "This is witchcraft, it screams cultism in your face. I hate witchcraft."

"I've seen many evil spellbooks in the pass," said Papa Smurf, "But this spellbook is the most unsmurfy I have yet encountered."

"There's gotta be a way to reverse the spell," I insisted as I flip through the pages, then my eyes caught sight of it, "Ah ha, there it is. It says here that in order to reverse the spell, we must destroy it with light. Well that seemed obvious, too obvious."

Suddenly the candle Rick had lit blew out and a sudden gust of wind blasted through the front door, I jumped down onto my stomach and wrapped my head with my arms as I squeezed my eyes shut. "NO!" cried Gargamel, "AHHHH!"

As the wind quickly dies down, I looked up and noticed Gargamel was gone. The Dark Presence must had dragged him into the night, all the smurfs quickly grouped around me as the Taken began to spawn out of the darkness. "Accomplish the impossible!" blurted out one of the Taken.

I did not have to yell, the smurfs knew exactly what to do. They aimed their flashlights at the Taken and began to battle, dodging flying knives and wrenches in the process. Each flash of stripped darkness was quickly followed by the Taken's destruction, the beginning seemed simple enough, then more Taken start showing up.

They keep coming in waves, and most said gibberish before they attack, yet the smurfs we're getting the hang of it. Even an obese smurf showing up with a chainsaw but I took him down without much effort, that's when the Dark Presence tried harder. Just as a victory seemed promising, another wave of both light blue and green smurf Taken spawned in massive numbers. "It just won't end!" cried Brainy.

"We just started, Brainy!" I ranted.

"Oh."

We held back the Taken with flares and we managed to get close enough where the flare's brightness was able to kill some of them, then I unloaded my gun at them. "Wanna play smurfball?" said one of the light-blue smurf Taken.

"I think there's more possessed smurfs than we realized." said Papa Smurf.

"Just keep fighting them until they stop coming," I replied, "Hold the line as long as possible!"

It took me awhile to realize that the Taken were actually after me and not the smurfs, so I ran out of the room and into another one. Sure enough, the possessed smurfs followed me and ignored my friends completely. "Over my dead body will you have me!" I screamed at the Taken.

They didn't respond, but I heard a voice in the air, "Then lets settle this directly."

The ground shook and all the Taken vanished, I managed to make my way back to the group just before we saw clouds of darkness come pouring into the windows. We watched as the clouds merge together in a ball before dropping to the ground in a double helix, forming the Dark Smurfette. "You slip through my fingers one last time Wunderwaffe," she said both in a usual voice and a demonic voice as an ax appeared in her hand, "If you want things to be done right, you gotta do it yourself."

"And it took you that long for you to realize that?" I asked.

"That's not how the story goes!" she barked.

A dark shroud appeared over her before she come towards me with the ax, I shined my flashlight at her and proceed to strip off her darkness. "You think your god!" she yelled the Dark Smurfette as she charged towards me, "You think you can make stuff up!"

I dodged out of the way, just missing her ax by a centimeter. "I've waited centuries for someone, like you, to set me free. These puppets, and poltergeist, I've sent against you. You prove tough, fooled me into thinking that you're under my spell, but now I'll make sure that you are mine once more."

"Why did you attack the human who set you free?" I asked, just nearly missing another swing of her ax.

"I don't need him," she said, "He really opened Pandora's box, don't you agree?"

The smurfs tried to shine their flashlight at the Dark Smurfette, but the Taken returned and kept them busy as I focused all my efforts on her. "I'm no god," I finally said, "I'm a wonder weapon created by mankind, you kill me you loose that one of a kind weapon."

"True," said the Dark Smurfette, "But you are difficult to control, I've encountered few creatures who possessed such will but you... you can't be compared to them."

"Then lets see what let to their demise then."

I pulled out a flare and lit it, the brightness of the flare repelled the Dark Smurfette into a corner, then her dark shroud was destroyed in a flash of static. "Come on Chernov," she hissed calm words into the air, "We can always be friends."

"I have enough friends already." I said right before I fired my gun at her.

Instead of bursting into static like the Taken, the Dark Smurfette reformed back into dark clouds and formed into a tornado. It began to suck up everything in the room as all the smurfs got down on their bellies to try not to get blown away, the Taken were sucked up into the tornado and their bodies burst into dark clouds, becoming one with the tornado. The Dark Presence's true form stands over me like a menace, looking over me like an ant.

"This time I'll finish you off!" said the Dark Presence.

Many items inside the hovel became possessed by the Dark Presence, they were torn in pieces in order to make more poltergeist. The poltergeists circle me like sharks, already tasting the kill. "Wow," I said, "Why did I made a dramatic scene for myself?"

I suddenly saw Tracker Smurf loosing his footing, and watched as he was sucked into the tornado screaming. That's when all the poltergeists started launching themselves at me, I managed to dodge the poltergeists and narrowly avoided getting struck by them. I shined my flashlight at the poltergeists, it took a few seconds before some of them burst into static before disappearing.

As I was handling the poltergeists, the smurfs tried to help by shining their flashlights directly at the tornado. It did them no good, only to be attracting attention to themselves. In one angry blow, a poltergeists launched itself at me with a direct hit. I flung across the room and slammed against the wall before dropping to the ground like a rag doll, I managed to take the pain as I get back onto my feet, and realized I'm trapped into a corner.

With everybody pinned down, I'm was helpless. I just stood there and try to focus my eyes on the tornado that's ever growing massively, I think the smurfs were screaming but the tornado's winds drown out all sounds. "Well what are you waiting for?" I taunted, "You have me, now get me."

The Dark Presence saw that I was not afraid, maybe that's why it took too long to attack me. Just before it was able to strike, a flash of green light engulfs the room and I heard the Dark Presence scream in agony. Another green flash of bright light destroyed all the poltergeists in the room, and another weakened the winds just enough for everysmurf to move around. I looked over at the corridor and saw Rachael, armed with a flare gun. "Here!" she cried as she tossed me a flare gun, "Take this!"

I caught the flare gun and rushed over to the Book of Darkness, I opened it up to the middle page and fired the flare gun straight into the book. As it burst into flames, the Dark Presence burst into static light as it screams in agony. And in a flash, the world exploded.

**TO BE CONTINUED...**


	14. Ch 14: Final Fight

**Disclaimer: I do not own any characters that were created by someone else**

**Claimer: Go to my profile to view my characters**

Dazed, I opened my eyes to find myself lying on the ground. The hovel itself was obliterated, only the concrete floor was left behind. Rachael rushed up to me and helped me up, "Are you okay?" she asked.

"I don't know," I answered, "Where's the others?"

"We're here!" said Papa Smurf as he Smurfette, and Handy regrouped with me. I examined them and realized they were covered in grime from the explosion, so I wasn't alone.

"That was one explosion," said Handy, "I didn't expect that."

"Did we win?" asked Smurfette.

A loud roar ripped through the still air, as if right on cue. "No," I said, "We didn't exactly destroy the Dark Presence, we broke it into pieces."

That's when a manuscript page drifts slowly to earth, it landed on the ground as I took notice. "Well here's the manuscript page," I said as I picked it up, "Let see what's in it."

_The brightness of a million suns and more heat than the heart of Mother Earth, the blast rips across the land to purge all life at hand – its mushroom cloud stands over the masses like a shroud of darkness. _

_Let the inferior hear the thunder, of his voice._

"Its a poem," said Papa Smurf, "But what does it mean?"

"I don't know," I said, "But I think I may have a clue, where's Brainy by the way?"

"Brainy?" asked Papa Smurf as he looked around, "He was with us a moment ago."

"Tracker's gone," said Handy, "I saw him vanished in the tornado."

"We all did," said Papa Smurf, "But where could he be?"

As we all stood there puzzling over what happened to the two smurfs, we heard an unexpected scream of mercy. "Help!" cried a voice, "Smurf!"

"That sounds like Brainy," replied Smurfette, "Brainy!"

"Someone help!" he cried.

We followed his voice and managed to find him laying face down on the ground, amazingly his glasses didn't fall off his face when he was tossed aside by the explosion. "I smurfed my leg," he said, "And several ribs, I'm not bleeding though."

I examined Brainy's leg, it was bent the wrong way. "Don't worry Brainy," said Smurfette, "We'll get you help!"

As Smurfette helps Brainy sat upright, I heard a scuffle in the bushes. "What the?" I said.

That's when Tracker came out of the bushes, darkness had consumed him and is covered in a dark shroud. "I can smell a human a mile away." he said in a demonic voice as he held up an ax.

A flare shot him from behind and Tracker burst into static before disappearing, then Rick came out of the vegetation holding a smoking flare gun in his hand. "That is how you do it." he grinned.

"Rick," I said, "You and your dramatic appearances."

"I never get out much," he said, "Now what do we do?"

"Head back to the Smurf Village," I said, "And I'll end the story there, assuming that we'll might live."

We began to hear strong winds all of a sudden as we turned to see a black tornado, this one however is smaller than the one we had faced earlier. That's when it shot towards us and me and the smurfs jumped out of the way, that's when it sucked up the helpless Brainy and dragged him into the night. It all happened within seconds, the last thing we heard from Brainy was his screams."

"We gotta go," I said, "NOW!"

"Right behind you bro." said Rick.

As we ran towards the Smurf Village, I gave my rant to Rachael. "Its foolish of you to come find me Rachael," I told her, "But thanks for the save?"

"Are you mad at me Chernov?" she asked.

"No," I said, "I've written your rescue attempt into the story, so its my fault."

"You and the universe have one vague relationship." laughed Rachael.

"Looks like we got Taken." said Rick.

Several green smurf Taken showed themselves and held up their weapons, "Gargamel." one of them blurted out.

I tossed my last flash-bang grenade at them, it exploded and annihilated the Taken. "Well that sure takes care of that." I comment.

As we made our way through the forest, we began to hear Brainy's voice circle through the air. But it doesn't sound right, just as we turn around the corner we saw him up in a tree. A shroud of darkness covers him as his eyes were dark, wielding an ax in plain view, indicating that Brainy is now a Taken. "As I, Brainy SMURF!" he blabbered in a partial demonic voice, "Successor of Papa Smurf, do solemnly swear to run the Smurf Village as the way Papa Smurf runs IT!"

He jumped off the branch and onto another tree, we continued running trying our best to ignore him. "Have you received a copy of QUOTATIONS by Brainy Smurf?" he continues to blabber, "Made by yours truly, Brainy Smurf. Best smurfy copies made by the finest printer press in the whole forest, be the first to get one and you'll get my AUTOGRAPH!"

"Damn dead nerve twitches!" cursed Rick.

Brainy suddenly went quiet as more green smurf Taken showed up, "There are 7 billion Homo Sapiens in the world!" one of them roared.

We fought them hard, with Brainy's rambling still echoing through our heads. Somehow, it was getting more and more easier to fight them. As we approached a river, we began to hear Brainy blabbering again.

"The Smurf Village Is a great place to live! But these SMURFS show no RESPECT to me! Despite being the ASSISTANT and SUCCESSOR to the great Papa Smurf, I am treated UNSMURFLY!"

Just as we ran down the road, we heard the chopping sound of an ax before hearing wood began to splinter, "Timber!" we heard Brainy yelled.

I looked up and saw a tree just about to topple over us, I quickly got out of the tree's way before it came crashing down in a thud. "Papa Smurf says that all accidents can be prevented," blabbered Brainy, "And Papa Smurf is always right, and Papa Smurf-"

I caught sight of him just up on a tall hill, I grabbed a nearby stone and threw it at his face. The stone hit his cheek, cutting Brainy's sentence off and causing him to roar in a demonic voice. I didn't even hurt him, the darkness protects him. He just shook off the blow and stormed off into the woods, "Papa Smurf!" I called to the old smurf, "Are you and the gang okay!"

"We're fine Chernov," said Papa Smurf on the other side of the massive tree, "We can't seemed to smurf through!"

I got up and examined the tree, the trunk was thick and there's no visible way to pass through it. I realize I was now on my own and I've lost my flashlight and rifle, "Don't worry bro!" called out Rick, "I'll take care of Rachael, we'll meet up with you at the logging site!"

"There's a logging site near here?" asked Rachael.

"Just be careful!" I called out to them, "And watch your step."

I had no gun and more importantly a flashlight, but I had no choice. I must make it through the woods with no sort of protection whatsoever, I just hope the others are alright. With no fear, I took off down the trail and ran as fast as I can. Even though the Taken were spawning near me, I just ignored them and keep on going, managing to outrun them in the process. I hadn't heard Brainy's gibberish for quite awhile, even though he was nearby a minute ago.

I had no real plan, I'm pretty much winging it. The story no longer keeps me safe, now I must write an epilogue to it in order to end the nightmare. With Gargamel missing and the Book of Darkness destroyed, I was convinced that nobody is going to reverse the spell if I fail. If that happens, this forest will become dark and dead, like the unfortunate Taken who were possessed by the Dark Presence.

I ran for about several meters, I realized that travel will be difficult on foot. I recall that the green smurfs will often drive through the forest, looking for their next meal. With all these green smurf Taken around, I abound to find a vehicle somewhere. Sure enough, I found a smurfvee just down the trail as the elevation lowers. Ironically, the internal lights were on, making it look like a little child's toy.

"Nice to see you too." I said to it as I got into the smurfvee and started it up.

The headlights were a welcome bonus, it will strip the dark shroud off the Taken before I ran them over. I drove down the trail and soon encountered some Taken in my path, when I ran them over their bodies burst into static before vanishing. They didn't tumble over or under the vehicle, they just vanished within impact. That's when the forest gave way to a patch of open grassland, then Feathers showed himself.

The possessed crane came flying out of the horizon and started barreling towards me, I could easily still make out Flying Smurf still flying on the crane's back. I gotta take out that bird or it will cause collateral damage at the Smurf Village, I just missed Feather's talons by a hair's length. As Feather's fly away, I stopped the smurfvee and quickly got out.

"There's gotta be flare guns in the back," I said to myself as I went to the rear of the vehicle and opened up the trunk, "Just one and a mere handful of flare ammunition, better than nothing."

I have 10 shots, that should be enough for me to take out Feathers. I grabbed the flare gun and loaded a round into it, I quickly got back from the car and looked up into the stormy sky. First there was silence, then I managed to make out the melting shadow of Feathers flying out of the horizon again. He charged at me once more as I held up the flare gun, just as he's within range I fired the flare gun directly into his face.

The crane let out a deafening screamed as it burst into mad static before vanishing in a puff of smoke, I can smell the odor of burned feathers and chicken as the bright green light of the flare dances wildly into the night. I went back to my car and reload my flare gun, then I gathered up all the ammunition rounds and move them to the front seat. I then shut the trunk before climbing back behind the wheel and shut the driver door and locked it, just as I was putting my seat belt back on I glanced up and saw the smurf form rose out of the darkness.

I rolled down my driver side window and saw Flying Smurf coming out of the darkness welding an ax, he had no dark shroud protecting him but he had darkness in his eyes. "The smurfs rule the skies!" he blabbered.

Without saying anything, I held my flare gun out the window and fired straight at his torso. He quickly die as he burst into static before disappearing, I sat the flare gun aside before I drove off.

Rick said about a logging site near here, green smurfs sure like to log wood so close to their neighbor's home. They do that because the wood quality is the best in the region, I even get my firewood from them at times. I shall go there, I think there might be a chance for an ambush though.

I once again dove back into the dark vegetation of the forest, I ran over a few more Taken before I stumbled into the fenced off logging site. There's no way I could simply drive into the area due to the tall fence, so I was forced to abandoned the smurfvee, it served me well.

"Guys!" I called out as I pocketed the flare gun ammunition and reloaded the gun, "Guys are you here!"

No response, I must have beaten them. No matter, I'll wait for them to arrive. I climbed over the fence and jumped down into the logging site, I noticed signs of green smurf activity everywhere. The trash looked like they've been deposited there about a day prior, and since the site was abandoned then that means the Dark Presence must have taken them.

It seemed obvious, due to all the liquid darkness puddles lying around. I looked around for a weapon, but I didn't find one. I rushed towards the small modular office as fast as I can, ignoring Brainy as he appeared out of nowhere and nearly cut my tail off with his ax as I passed by him. "I'm Brainy," he yapped, "Friend to all the animals."

I rushed into the office and slammed the door right into Brainy's face, "Always listen to Papa Smurf!" he screams as he plunges the ax into the door, its blade sticking through with a thud. He removed the ax as I searched the place, looking for a weapon. I managed to find a flashlight and a pistol w/ ammunition, I grabbed the gun and then the flashlight before turning it on. The flashlight flickered to light, now I have a way to fight the Taken.

"In a village full of one hundred smurfs," rambled Brainy as it sounded like he's getting onto the roof of the office, "One aging smurf watches over them to make sure the village functions, that would be PAPA SMURF!"

I stood there in a WTF moment, and soon forgotten what I was here for. That's when I heard some machinery outside roared to life, its sound brought me back to focus. I looked a window and saw a bulldozer come rumbling towards me, assuming Brainy is gone I rushed up to the other door, kicked it down, and jumped out of it as the bulldozer struck the office, and pushed it off of a cliff. I don't know why would the modular office be built over a cliff, that would be a safety hazard due to earthquakes. I watch the bulldozer drive itself off the cliff with the modular office, disappearing into the darkness below.

"Now that's what I call a cliffhanger." I uttered out.

"Chernov!" I heard a voice.

I turned and saw the group approach, Rachael rushed up to me and gave me a big hug. "You're alright!" she cried.

"Just barely," I said, "Let's keep going!"

"How come I wasn't aware of this logging site?" wondered Papa Smurf.

"Green smurfs don't have a habit of telling you everything." said Rick.

Just before we left the logging site, I caught site of crates full of axes. Some crates appeared to be busted open and emptied of its contents awhile others lay untouched, "Now I know where the Taken are getting their axes." I said.

"Should we destroy them?" asked Rick.

I grabbed a nearby gas-can, dumped all the gasoline over the crates, then set it ablaze with a flare. "Let's go." I said as the crates go up in flames.

We left the axes to burn and continued our course straight towards the Smurf Village, we ran down the trail and fought several Taken in our path. After a few minutes, I could now see the Smurf Village up ahead. Just as we near, a destroyed tank came crashing straight down to earth and bars our way. The shadows clung to the tank greatly, it also spells ambush.

That's when Brainy Smurf appeared, climbing over the tank and stood on his springy legs, darkness covers him like a beast. "Papa Smurf is always right!" he rambled as he jumps down and prepares his ax.

"Now we fight him." I said.

Brainy of course is once of those Taken who zip around as fast as Sonic the Hedgehog, I can't believe anyone can move that fast. Getting a light source concentrated on him is difficult, but now impossible. Suddenly more Taken showed up, screaming gibberish. "There's no way anyone can move that fast!" cried Papa Smurf, "It's impossible!"

"Crossing a river is dangerous!" blabbered Brainy as he ran all over the place, "The River Smurf claims more human lives than their pesky wars! Always use a bridge when crossing a river!"

We managed to kill several Taken, Handy concentrates most of his efforts on the tank as I backed him up. "I will gladly share my smurfdom of knowledge to any smurf who seeks it," Brainy rambles on, "Everything I know is what Papa Smurf... KNOWS!"

Brainy shot to Papa Smurf and tried to strike him with his ax, Papa Smurf managed to dodge the blade as it plunged into the dirt. Brainy removed the ax's head from the ground and continued zipping around, "How ironic that Brainy tried to kill you despite saying all those great things about you!" laughed Rick.

"This is not a good time for death humor!" cried Papa Smurf.

"Only Chernov says its a good time," claimed Rick, "Is it a good time Chernov?"

"Hell no!" I barked at him.

I finally managed to pin Brainy to a corner with my flashlight, static light shot off of him like radioactivity as I burn away his protective darkness. In a flash of light, the darkness combust. Now unprotected by the Dark Presence, I proceed to gun Brainy down. I tried to fire my gun at him, only to discover that I ran out of ammo. "Aw crap." I said as Brainy started to march towards me, welding his ax up high.

Just before Brainy swung his ax at me, Rachael came from behind and grabbed the ax's neck. She pulled it out of Brainy's hands with all of her strength and kicked his back, knocking him to the ground before slamming the ax down onto his torso. The smurf burst into static before disappearing, along with the ax. "I think we're even now." said Rachael.

A flash of green light caught our attention, we discovered that Handy shot a flare at the possessed tank and managed to destroy it. It vanished, clearing the way to the Smurf Village. "Let's get this story done with." said Handy.

**TO BE CONTINUED...**


	15. Ch 15: Endeavor

**Disclaimer: I do not own any characters that were created by someone else**

**Claimer: Go to my profile to view my characters**

As we rush into the Smurf Village, I noticed how vague it appeared. Since it was devoid of smurfs, it had an eerie feeling to it. Papa Smurf would agree, in fact he commented on the desolation. "Living in an empty village is frightening." he muttered.

"You hear that guys," said Ryan, "Papa Smurf is becoming a Taken!"

"Very funny." mumbled Papa Smurf.

"Okay guys," I said, "Once I get into my house, you keep the Taken at bay as I write the epilogue. This wouldn't take long."

As we near my house, several light blue and green smurf Taken appeared all over the place. It was sheer numbers, no way to fight them all in time. Just as things couldn't get worse, Azrael showed up out of nowhere as a Taken. Seeing the shadows cling to his fur and the darkness that filled his eyes made it clear that there's no turning back.

I dart across the village as Azrael proceeds to chase me, I held a lit flare in my hand just to prevent him from pouncing on me. The group backs me up with anything they could use, they pretty much used up all the flash-bang grenades and flares they had. "Go Chernov!" cried Papa Smurf, "Hurry!"

Rick managed to stun Azrael with a flash-bang grenade as I reached my house and opened the door, I ran inside and locked the door behind me before turning the lights on. To make things easier for everyone, I turned the front door lights on. The walls of my house managed to muffle the noise outside, perfect for me to write an epilogue. I walked up to my desk and sat on the chair and turned the desk light on, I focused the light on the typewriter before putting a blank page in it. Then I set to work:

_The Dark Presence released its grip on all those it had taken after being defeated, all inanimate objects and creatures. Freed from their torment, they wake up to find themselves laying on the ground, underneath the mercy of the sun. As they stood up, about a thousand copies of the book "Endeavor" fall from the sky and litter the landscape. They were all smurf-size, and there was enough of them to fill a library. It was all that remain of the nightmare that once took place, now memorialized in print. Finally finished, Chernov could finally rest for once._

_But the Dark Presence was still out there, waiting. This time, it wanted Chernov's powers. So one night, when Chernov was just about to get inside the safety of his home, the Dark Presence ambushed him and engulfed him._

I hope it works, cause I don't know where or when it will take place. I sat there and wondered what I'll do next, and then I realized that it suddenly became quiet. Odd, since I had the aluminum shutters down, I can't see through the windows. I got up and walked over to the door and opened it, when I did I was bathed in extremely bright light. Before I managed to close the door, a gust of strong winds came through the door and blew me across the room. I hit my head on the back wall and I blacked out.

All I could remember seeing is bright white light, when I came to I sense that I was lying on the ground and when I opened my eyes I realized that it was morning. I was outside, lying on the ground. The birds were chirping and singing. It felt like a dream, but was I awake? As I stood up, Rachael suddenly appeared and helped me up to my feet. "Chernov!" she cried, "You're okay!"

"Is it over?" I asked.

"I think so." said Rachael.

I looked around and noticed that I'm still in the Smurf Village, there were smurfs lying all over the place and they were waking up. Some of the smurfs were originally possessed by the Dark Presence, somehow I saved them. I went around looking for Papa Smurf and found him near his home, he was also started to wake up. "You did it Chernov," said Papa Smurf as I helped him up, "You saved us all."

"I more like saved you from myself," said Chernov, "Thankfully the damage has been reversed."

"Papa Smurf," a smurf cried, I turned and saw Brainy came running up to us in a state of shock, "What happened? Is it over?"

"Its over Brainy." said Papa Smurf.

"All I remember is being on the ground and being sucked into the tornado," said Brainy, "And then nothing."

"You were a Taken," I said, "You wouldn't even shut up as you tried to kill us."

"I did?" asked Brainy, "Now I'm confused."

At that moment, I heard thumping noises coming from all over the place. I looked up and saw black hardback books fall from the sky in the hundreds. One of the books landed nearby, I walked up to it and picked it up. I examined the cover and saw a white hammer & sickle on the cover, "Endeavor: When Darkness Falls by Chernov Reznov," I said as I flip through the pages of the book, "The plot in here seemed more complex in here, not the random manuscript pages we keep finding."

"Its genre is Horror," said Papa Smurf as he picks up a copy on the ground, "You caused this?"

"Yeah," I said, "I made it rain books, cause its a very good legend to tell for generations. Now would you excuse me, I'm going to go to bed now."

"No Chernov," said Rachael as she came out of nowhere, "We gotta find the kids."

"We're here!" cried Cherskey and Nelly as they appear out of nowhere.

"Go do what you want guys," said Chernov, "I'm going to sleep this off, so I'll see you later."

"Okay Chernov." said Rachael.

I head back to my house and slumped onto the couch for the rest of the day, I practically slept there trying to recover the energy I lost when writing "Endeavor." When I woke up, I noticed many hours had passed and the sun had set. I got up and grabbed a Heavy-Duty Lantern Flashlight before heading out the door.

Nothing stirred in the darkness beyond, no signs of the Dark Presence anywhere. I turned on the flashlight and it project its beam in a bright stream of light, "How comforting." I muttered.

I head over to Papa Smurf's house, everywhere I turned I see that many lights in the mushroom buildings were still on. As I reached Papa Smurf's house, I opened the door and saw him laying their on his bed. "Papa Smurf?" I asked.

The old smurf looked towards me, he seemed relieved. "I'm just here to check up on you," I said, "All the other smurfs seemed to be sleeping with the lights on, little do they know it will do them no good."

"A false sense of security?" asked Papa Smurf.

"A simple flame won't work," I said, "You need the brightness of a artificial light source, such as this flashlight here."

"Everything is fine Chernov," said Papa Smurf, "You holler if you hear trouble."

"That's what I did in the beginning," I said, "Goodnight."

"Night." said Papa Smurf.

I head back home, along the way I see many smurf eyes peaking out the windows. They were watching me, I don't know why. Just as I near the front door, I tried to open it but realized it was locked. So I sat down my flashlight and pulled out the key and unlocked the door, that's when I sensed something behind me. I turned around and saw a large dark cloud of liquid darkness, I did not flinch nor scream when it swallowed me whole.

**THE END!**


End file.
